The Darkness Overcomes You
by Xyex
Summary: In a dark and desolate AU, very different from the world we all know, the universe is about to unravel and the natural order to come crashing down in chaos.
1. In the Darkness

A/N: This takes place in an AU of DBZ, a very dark AU. The time-frame is around 12 years after Z, also this story will have several original characters of varied importance and things will be quite different than the normal universe. This is most definitely going to be an R rated story, and by far the darkest I've written. I was reading a story earlier that just sunk me into one of my dark and brooding states of mind. I get those now and then.

As to how often this story can and will be updated, that's unknown. I need to be in the correct mindset to work on it, so updates will probably be slow, unless I can get a lot of the writing done during each session. Anyway, this story isn't for kids. This wont be a light-hearted fic. Now, I am going to attempt to keep things tone down, mostly imply things, in order to keep this on FFnet.

Not entirely sure of the limits to what I can and can't do, never pushed them before, but if I do cross them someone let me know so I can try and salvage the story without it being deleted. No idea if I may cross it or not but, just incase. FFnet is where my fan base is so I'd like to keep all my stuff here...

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**Part One: The Masters**

_Chapter One - In the Darkness_

Darkness bathed the city gripping it tightly and hiding its horrors from wondering eyes. Thick smoke rose high into the night sky and hung over the city blotting out the light of the stars and moon. Rubble filled the desolate streets and the stench of burnt and rotting flesh filled the air. Moving slowly through the ruined city, walking down the nearly impassible streets, was a group of five similarly dressed people. 

They were of varying heights, skin colors, and hair colors, some of them short, some tall, some thin, some muscular, and a one was bald. They all wore knee length black shorts, white boots and gloves, and armors of black and green. Adorning each face, covering only their left eyes, were devices that looked like odd green glasses.

As the soldiers moved along the one on the far right stopped and looked into the remains of a gutted building. He reached up one hand and clicked a button on the device he wore and the piece of green glass came alive with activity. Yellow lights danced across the glass as the device searched out for any presence within the darkness. The other soldiers noticed him stop and stopped as well glancing back at him and over at the gutted building.

"Getting anything Pintur?" a female voice asked, a slight unknown accent.

"Just a second, Mitsuki." replied the short but muscular man as a gust of wind blew through his wild black hair. A second later the lines dancing across his scouter stopped and outlined a form hidden in the blackness as numbers danced across the monitor. Then the device beeped and Pintur smirked. "Got three, power levels of 18, 2, and 5." He raised a hand and pointed it toward the building, white energy arcing around and about his palm before a low powered energy blast launched toward the building and exploded several feet short of it. "Show yourselves!" he ordered. "Or I'll bring the place down on your heads!"

"Please, don't hurt us!" a young man's voice called out. As it did light bathed the area from a small flash light being held by the team leader, Mitsuki. The light revealed a young man no more than fifteen years old, in ragged and torn clothes and covered in dirt, slowly emerging from the building. He raised his arms to shield his eyes from the light. Behind him, clinging to his pants, was a young girl in a similar condition, no more than four or five. Lastly came another girl about sixteen years old.

"What are you doing here?" Mitsuki demanded looking them over. "This area is off limits."

"We... we're looking for our uncle..." the older of the girls said nervously. "He came this way last month... before the battle..."

One of the other soldiers snorted. "If he was around here then he's dead." he said in a deep and raspy voice.

Mitsuki rubbed her forehead. "Damn, this was supposed to be a simple patrol job." she muttered.

Pintur grinned. "What's not simple about this?" he asked. "We have some fun, we kill them, we keep moving."

"Certainly sounds better than hours of paperwork, and having to baby-sit these kids." the raspy voice said.

Mitsuki snorted in disgust. "That's all you two think about. Food and sex."

"You mean there's more to life than that?" Pintur asked in mock shock turning to look at Mitsuki again.

She just rolled her eyes and scrunched up her face in disgust. "I suppose Sai-jins will be Sai-jins." she said shaking her head. "Fine, have your fun, but I'm not sticking around to watch."

Pintur laughed. "And I suppose Humans will be Humans, eh Mitsuki?" he asked grinning. "Your people have no sense of fun! I mean, I'm sure the boy could survive for a little while at least." he said still grinning before he turned back toward the three people who were looking at them in fear now. "Come on Inon, time to take a break from our patrol. Either of you guys coming, Ovidar, Geovar?"

"No thanks." a smooth voice said. "We don't much like Human girls, most of them break too easy." He looked at the power readings that were displayed on his scouter now as well. "And these two don't look like they'd be exceptions to that..." He turned and started away, the soldier beside him doing the same.

Mitsuki looked over to where Pintur still stood and Inon was nearing bringing both Sai-jins into view. Pintur was short, only about 5 foot 2, but was rather well built. Inon was a good six feet or so and, while toned, not as buff as Pintur. Still, both were imposing to look at, especially within their armor. "You've got fifteen minutes." she said turning away. "For every second over I'm docking you five percent of your pay."

"Got it!" the raspy voice of Inon called back as he pointed a finger at the young man. There was a spark of blue at the tip of his finger before a stream of energy surged forward and through the boy's head. The force of the attack lifted him off his feet and threw him backward several feet, the young girl clinging to his leg losing her grip and falling over. That done the two began toward the girls.

Mitsuki, Ovidar, and Geovar continued moving away as the older girl began to yell for help. It only took a moment of hearing her for Mitsuki to regret her decision, but she knew she had to let Inon and Pintur have their 'fun' now and then or she'd wind up with a label she didn't want, either traitor or sympathizer. Either one would put her as the target of the 'fun' for anyone strong enough to overpower her. Still that didn't mean she had to like the screams and cries echoing out from behind her as she walked. To try and drown them out she started up a conversation with the two aliens still with her. Still, even after five minutes and several blocks, she could still hear the screams and calls for help.

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Back at the building Inon was holding the young girl by her collar as he grinned watching Pintur go. "Hey, don't break her, I still need a turn." 

"No promises." Pintur laughed. "What about the kid?"

"I'm thinking of holding onto her, spoils of war." Inon said, his grin widening. Suddenly his scouter flared to life and he turned to look up at the top of a near-by building. Before the scouter had even finished reading the power it had picked up the sphere of golden energy filled Inon's vision and then slammed into his head and exploded knocking him backwards and causing him to release the child. Before Inon had even hit the ground the girl was in the arms of a new person who was trying to calm her down.

At the commotion and interruption Pintur pulled his shorts back up and turned around. His eyes widened as he saw Inon sprawled on the ground, his skull busted open by the KI blast that had hit him. Blood was pulling under his head as his arms and legs continued to twitch. Pintur turned his attention to the other presences in the street and his eyes widened further at the sight of the four people.

The child was being held by a young looking woman with piercing green eyes with short and wild blue hair. She also had a scar that ran diagonally from above her right eye, across the bridge of her nose, and down below her left eye that made her all the more imposing to look at. The scar was a defining feature that Pintur recognized from reports, but the outfit she wore was far more defining. It was an orange, almost red, GI with a blue belt and black red trimmed boots. She also wore a couple of blue wrist bands and Pintur could make out a blue undershirt beneath her GI. She was a student of the Turtle Hermit, a member of the resistance. Enzeru.

The woman handed the child over to another person drawing Pintur's attention to him. He was of fairly average height, bald, had three eyes, and was wearing black shoes, white pants, and a heavy blue tunic. The outfit was forgettable but the third eye confirmed the man's identity beyond any doubt. Tien.

Pintur's eyes roamed in the opposite direction then, toward the other two figures. The first his eyes met was another man of fairly average height, black hair and eyes, and several scars. His arms were crossed over an orange GI with a black belt, shoes, and no undershirt. He wasn't as powerful or as standout in appearance as the others were, but Pintur still recognized Yamcha.

Finally he spied the short bald man standing beside Yamcha. He too wore an orange GI with a blue belt, trim, and black boots with blue trim. It seemed all four of them had some sort of distinguishing features. Enzeru with her scar, and being female. Tien with his third eye. Yamcha with a few scars on his face and even more on other parts of his body. And Krillin, the shortest of them all and lacking a nose.

There they all stood, the four warriors that were talked about within the ranks of Imperial Forces in hushed whispers. Their exploits were quite famous, and they were followed closely by the Imperial Masters. Not because any of them feared the four warriors, while Enzeru, the strongest of the four, could possibly defeat the weakest of the Masters that was only if he didn't transform. Besides, their were soldiers in the Imperial Forces who were stronger than the weakest of the Masters.

No, their exploits were watched as a form of entertainment. Their were rumors of a bet within the ranks of the Masters. In fact, of several bets. Which of the four would be the first to die? Who'd attain the highest body count? Who would be the last to die? Things like that.

But all that Pintur knew was that he stood no chance against the four of them. Hell, he stood no chance against just one of them. As absurd as it was, he was far outclassed by the four Humans that now faced him, far more than he was by Mitsuki. Granted, three of them were in their sixties by actual passage of time, and Enzeru in her forties, but physically speaking none of them were older than thirty. The results of Eternal Youth wishes. These four weren't the only ones, the Masters had sought out the same power.

Enzeru stepped forward and Pintur took a step back in fear. The female walked past him to the teen still laying on the ground and helped her to her feet. "Shhhh, it's okay." she said holding her and moving away from Pintur. "He can't hurt you any more." Enzeru cast a glance down at the fallen boy and shook her head slowly in sadness.

Pintur turned as he heard a sudden crack and saw Yamcha lunging in at him across the street. Before he had the chance to react the Human's fist smashed into his chest shattering his armor and ribs and flinging him backward into the building. The force of the impact brought the gutted structure down on top of him. Before he'd even hit though, the four warriors had felt his KI vanish.

"Damn." Krillin muttered kneeling beside the fallen boy. "I hate it when we're late."

"Tell me about it." Tien said with a frown. "Yamcha, can you take them back to base?" He nodded. "Good, the other three are around here somewhere, shouldn't be to hard to feel them out, the city is nearly empty. Let's keep to the ground, suppress our energy. We don't want them calling in stronger guns. Especially not with Cold on the planet." The others nodded and, as Yamcha lead the girls back toward their base, the other three started down the street tracking down the other powers.

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Ovidar and Geovar, the two tall, bald, lanky, and blue skinned men stood leaning against a lamp post watching their team leader. It still felt odd to them to be under the command of a Human, most Human's were weaklings. But Mitsuki had been one of the good Doctor's many little test subjects, during the early days of his experiments. No one was entirely sure what had been done to the girl anymore but it had increased her power, which had been the intent of the project. 

At the moment she was kneeling in the intersection they were in and checking a body. Her scouter had picked up a faint and fading power and she'd found a young boy trapped under a slab of concrete. The two aliens had intended simply to keep going and ignore his faint cries for help. But after letting Inon and Pintur have their 'fun' earlier she felt like she had to try and do something to redeem herself and had stopped.

But the more she looked over the situation the more hopeless it looked. She'd moved the slab of concrete that had fallen onto him but his legs were broken. Not that it really mattered, his lower back was broken as well, so he wouldn't have been able to move his legs even if they were in one piece. He also had an iron rod punching through his back and out of his abdomen. No, only one thing would be able to save him, a Regen Tank. Not that he'd make it to one in time, even if she carried him back as fast as she could move.

"It's okay." she said to him softly placing a hand on his head. "The pain will go away soon." A purple glow formed about her hand and a moment later the weak KI vanished and the boy closed his eyes.

Geovar laughed. "And so we witness the Angel of Mercy at work." he said with a shake of his head. "When I first heard the two names you'd earned for yourself I couldn't figure how they could belong to the same person. I still can't. Angel of Mercy and Angel of Death. I've seen you just as ruthless as any Sai-jin and yet you're as soft as the Humans."

Mitsuki stood and turned her gaze toward him, the taller and stronger of the two, and shook her head. "Life is life to me Geovar." she said. "I like mine and I like those of others. I do what I need to in order to survive and I do what I can to help others. They just... don't always go together."

Ovidar snorted. "Compassion, it's a pointless emotion. If the tables were turned all these people would kill you without a second thought."

"Only the ones I gave reason to." Mitsuki said with a glance back down the street to where Inon and Pintur where. "Damn it. Come on, we're going back. Paperwork or not I'm stopping those two."

"Don't worry, they've already been stopped." a male voice said from above. They looked up and saw a short bald man standing on one of the light poles. 

_"Shit!"_ Mitsuki's mind screamed. _"We just had to run into them! Damn it, looks like I've hit the end of the line..."_ She turned to the two aliens. "Geovar, Ovidar, move!" she ordered.

The two aliens launched into the air at Krillin but the short Human vanished before they reached him. "Damn! Mitsuki, where'd he go!" they cried turning around.

_"Mitsuki?"_ Enzeru's mind cried in shock. She gazed up at the woman in the Sai-jin armor. Long blue hair hanging down to the middle of her back and, now that she was looking she could see them, a pair of shimmering green eyes. _"Could... could she be..."_

Her thoughts were interrupted by a cry from Krillin. "Destructo Disc!" Her eyes focused again and she saw three disks of energy cutting through the air, one for each of the armor clad warriors. Enzeru didn't even need to think and she was moving. As the first two disks sliced through Geovar and Ovidar cutting them in half Enzeru pushed up a KI barrier and shattered the one intended for Mitsuki.

"Hey, what's up?" Tien asked floating down from a roof top.

"She's not like the rest." Enzeru said turning. "You saw what she did, heard her speech. We always go on about second chances, and I say she deserves one." She looked into Mitsuki's eyes for a moment, the wind picking up from behind the armored woman and blowing her hair out in front of her and a mixing it with Enzeru's, the shades a perfect match. "You... are you Human?"

_"She's giving me a second chance? Because I showed compassion to the boy? I've always heard that these four... three? Whatever, I always heard that they killed anyone that was affiliated with the Empire... Though I guess I should have expected this from them, from people fighting against the Masters." _"Wha... what?" she asked hearing the question. "Y-yes, I'm Human... Why?"

"By Kami..." Enzeru said looking at her. "I can't believe it..."

"Believe what?" Krillin asked walking up beside her.

"Don't you see it?" she said motioning toward the other woman.

Tien walked up beside them and got his first good look at Mitsuki. "The resemblance... the hair and eyes and face... it's remarkable." He cast a glance between them a moment before locking his eyes onto Enzeru. "You... think she's your sister?"

"S-sister?" Mitsuki asked looking at the woman before her. Sure, she'd noticed some similarities in the images she'd seen, and now too, but... as far as she knew she had no living family. And wouldn't someone in the Empire know about this if it were true? Wouldn't they have done something by now, used her as bait or something?

"We can sort this out later." Tien said. "We need to get moving, just in case another patrol comes through the area. We'll figure this out back at base."


	2. Family Matters

Gega03: If you mean on one of the websites, I stopped those. I have a message board now, link is my homepage link in my bio. If that's what you're already talking about, I only update as sections are finished so as not to reveal later points. And a few stories wont have Power Levels, like Legends - Book I (and the two that will follow). Neither will Adrift. Everything else, I believe, is up to date. Please correct me if I'm wrong though. As for this story, Unrivaled, and Retrun of Recoome, well, those aren't far enough along yet to make it worth the time.

_Chapter Two - Family Matters_

A pair of light blue eyes fluttered open and looked about groggily. The body they belonged to was cold and sore. _"Where... where am I? Why am I here?"_ she wondered. She tried to move her arms but they wouldn't obey. Turning to look she saw why, metal straps bound her arms to the wall at the wrists holding her up in a cross shape. _"W-what's going on?"_ She shifted her feet and found that they were shackled with metal chains to the wall as well.

She heard a loud and agonized scream suddenly fill the hall outside. Her eyes opened wide as the scream dragged on for several moments before fading away completely. Her clothes weren't thick enough to keep out the damp chill of the air as she looked about her in fear and worry. The room she was in was small, only a six foot cube. Across from her was the door, solid steel like the room, with a small opening at the top to see through and to let fresh air in through.

_"Think girl... what's the last thing you remember? I... I was on my way to the cafeteria for lunch..." _ She shook her head to shake off the cobwebs still clinging to her mind. _"I was going to get lunch and... a voice behind me called my name."_ She narrowed her eyes as she thought, a stray lock of blonde hair falling down over her face.

_"Who was it? Oh, why can't I remember!"_ She lightly smacked the back of her head into the wall behind her as she tried to think. _"What did he look like? I can remember green and red... he was big... Gah! Come **on** Marron, **think**!"_ She closed her eyes tightly and focused.

"Mmmm, now aren't you a nice one to look at?" a voice said from outside the cell. Marron opened her eyes and looked through the opening. All she could make out were a pair of blue eyes. "So, what are you in here for?" Before Marron had a chance to say anything a female voice cut in, seemingly from down the hall. She couldn't hear most of what she said, only 'alone' and 'off-limits'. Whatever she'd said made the man groan. "Babe, you spoil all of my fun."

The woman snorted. "Tough, deal with it. Though from the sound of it you had some fun earlier." She was a lot closer now and a second later she saw another pair of eyes, these ones blue as well, enter the view through the opening in the door. The woman leaned forward a bit and Marron realized she must be kissing the man. After a moment she pulled back. "Besides, you're mine now."

The man laughed. "Possessive, aren't we? Okay, okay, I'll leave her alone. Though I am interested in what you're up to this time."

"Just helping out the Doctor with a project."

"Ah, she's to be a test subject then? Poor thing, so pretty too." he said gazing in at her again. "You know babe, she kind of looks like you."

The woman snorted. "You said the same thing about that waitress yesterday, and the servant Cold brought with him, and..."

"Okay, okay. I get your point. All blonde women look alike to me."  
  
The woman chuckled. "If you weren't so cute I'd smack you." she said playfully. "Now, aren't you needed in a meeting with your father?"

He sighed. "Nothing but boring matters of state. He's not sent me out on an actual mission since I was little kid! I don't get why he's making me..."

"Learn to be king?" the woman asked. "Oh, gee, I don't know... maybe because you're a prince?"

The man snorted. "It's just a title these days. The Cold Family runs all the paperwork, you guys handle all the actual fighting and enforcing of laws..." he shook his head. "Hell, father's not even really king anymore. He lost that title when his power was surpassed..."

The woman placed a finger on his lips silencing him. "Your father isn't the strongest anymore, no. He hasn't been for years. But he is still king, the others only care about getting stronger, not ruling."

As she listened to the exchange Marron's mind was working a mile a minute. _"He's a Prince? She's his girl... they've got blue eyes, she's blonde... He's training to be King... Oh Kami! Could they... but... how? Why?"_ Her eyes widened as she suddenly remembered who'd been behind her, who'd called her name. _"Android 16! But why? What do they want with... wait... what did they say? I'm going to be a test subject? The Doctor? Oh... no... no... no..."_ Marron began trying to pull her hands free of her shackles as the two people outside kissed again and then the man walked off.

A second later she heard the lock on the door snap open and the handle turned. Marron felt her blood run cold as the door swung open. It's opening triggered the dim overhead lights to brighten to a more normal level and Marron saw for certain that she'd been right. Standing before her was a young looking woman with blonde hair and blue eyes. She had on a pair of brown boots, black pants, a denim skirt, a black shirt with long white sleeves with black stripes, and an open denim jacket with the sleeves cut off.

"An... Android 18..." she breathed.

"In the flesh." she said slowly walking closer to her. "You know, you almost got the two of us into a bit of trouble." 18 stopped a foot away from the woman and reached out a hand. Marron jerked and turned her head but 18 merely brushed the stray lock of blonde hair off her face. "Twenty-five years is a long time..." she mumbled.

"Wh-why... me..." Marron choked, obviously frightened.

"Don't be scared Marron, I wont let anything happen to you. And I apologize for 16's... lack of restraint at times. He wasn't supposed to knock you out like that." 18 sighed and ran a hand through her hair. As she looked at Marron she suddenly smiled. "Trunks was right, we do look a lot alike. You've got my eyes, and my nose..." she chuckled. "Thank Kami for that."

"Y-your eyes and nose?" Marron asked confused.

18 sighed again and shook her head. "Promise me you wont try and take off if I let you free? I don't want one of the guards blasting you into little pieces." Marron nodded. "I don't even know why 16 chained you up." she muttered as she released first her left arm and then her right. As she bent down and opened the shackles around her ankles she shook her head. "His AI has been upgraded a half dozen times and I swear, he gets dumber each time. These days I think 19's more intelligent..."

As the last of the shackles opened 18 stood up again and stared at Marron for a moment. "Still... as much as you look like me you look like your father too."

"My... father? You... know my father? Wait, look like you? I... I don't... I don't understand..."

18 sighed and turned around. "Follow me Marron." was all she said. 18 led the other woman out of the cell and down a long corridor. On both sides were more doors leading into cells like the one she'd just been in. From a few she could hear low crying as they passed and she'd braved a glance into a couple of them. The first looked empty but the second held a man, she couldn't tell his age since she couldn't see his face. He was restrained same as she had been, but he lacked clothes. He also had welts of various shapes and sizes covering his body. As soon as she saw him she wished she hadn't and looked away.

After a bit the cell doors ended and the walls became smooth unbroken steel. They continued on like that for several yards before she saw another door along the right wall. It was a set of double doors with round glass panes set into them, obviously not the cells of before. Marron cast a glance through one of the windows into the room. It was large and filled with metal operating tables and various devices she couldn't make heads or tails of, and she was pretty sure she didn't want to find out what they were either.

After going a bit further they passed through a set of solid double doors, no windows in these ones, and emerged from the cold and sterile steel hall into one of wooden walls and tile floors. 18 led her down another hall, around a corner, down another hall, through a large empty chamber of some kind, a ballroom most likely, and up three flights of stairs. At last they entered another room and came to a stop.

The room had one window that looked out at the setting sun and was lightly furnished. A simple bed, a couple chairs, a desk, a couch, a TV, and a computer. 18 took a seat in one of the chairs and then motioned for Marron to sit on the couch. As Marron took her seat she had a clear view of 18's closet. There were a couple other outfits and two sets of armor. One was red and white, the colors of the Red Ribbon Army. The other was purple and black, the colors of an Imperial General. Simply seeing the armors in the closet was imposing enough, she could only imagine what it would be like to see 18 fully decked out in them.

Suddenly she realized the other woman was speaking. "Oh... I-I'm sorry... I must have... z-zoned out."

18 nodded. "There's no reason to be scared Marron. I was saying that you aren't actually one of the Doctor's test subjects. I just said that so Trunks would drop the matter."

"So then... that was the Prince?" she asked.

"Yes."

"He was a lot more..."

"Civil?" 18 asked with a grin. "He has his moments."

It still felt odd, to be speaking to Android 18 like this, but she was feeling more comfortable now. "Before... y-you mentioned that I had... That... you knew..." Well, she's feeling more comfortable, yes, but it was still odd. "You said I almost got us into a bit of trouble."

"You have my eyes and nose, I do know your father though I've not actually seen him in person for almost... twenty-four years now, and you did come close to causing a bit of a problem. I suppose I really should explain everything to you, I had always intended to eventually tell you, I just never expected it to be like this." 18 leaned back in her chair and gazed up at the ceiling. Suddenly she chuckled lightly. "Oh, this is going to sound like a line from a bad movie but, Marron, I am your mother."

"M-my mo-moth-mother?" Marron stammered.

"Yes. I know you found out about being adopted ten years ago, and I know you went looking for your parents. I've wanted to tell you but the risks..."

"Risks? And, why now, why like this? And who's my father?"

18 sighed. "I'll answer the middle two questions first, they're easiest. Now and like this is because... I no longer had a choice. Your application to Capsule Corp. was accepted... The first thing they do to new employees is do a genetic screening."

"So? I've had several of those."

"Not like this Marron. Most places only do genetic mapping. They look for defects and they compare to records to confirm parentage and race. Only, your parentage isn't on record, neither my DNA or your fathers. At least, not in the public database. But Capsule Corp. would have made the match... and explaining it would not have been easy. Easier than keeping you alive at least."  
  
Marron's face went white. "W-what?"

18 closed her eyes and shook her head. "You'd have been used as bait instantly. Someone in the chain out to make a name for themselves would have grabbed you and held you hostage in order to draw out your father. You are my daughter... I couldn't just stand aside, despite how cold I may seem at times..."

"Who is he, my father?"

"I'll start at the beginning, it'll make more sense that way." 18 took a deep breath as she prepared herself. "It's been almost twenty-nine years now since I first came on-line for the final time. May 12th, 767. That's when Dr. Gero finished his work on my brother and I. Our original purpose had been to defeat the Masters and free the Earth. Built by the resistance as their ultimate weapons. Only Gero was a member of the Empire himself, planted in the resistance as a spy.

"My brother and I were selected for the process because Gero knew we'd side with the Empire." She shook her head. "None of that really matters, does it?" she sighed again. "Anyway, after final activation 17 and I wiped out the resistance base we'd been built in. We were unknown to the rest of the resistance. Gero made sure no one knew what we looked like, or that we'd even been finished. The idea was to have us infiltrate other bases.

"Since the bulk of our power is artificially created our actual KI output is that of a normal Human, we fit right in. The base I had been sent to was run by the Z-Force members. Years passed and I began to... actually fall in love with one of them, your father." 18 smiled for a moment but it faded as she continued. "I can remember the day I realized I was pregnant... I kept it from everyone, even your father. I made up an excuse and disappeared for a few months until you were born.

"I didn't want to give you up but, I knew that you'd be killed. So I dropped you off on the steps of the orphanage and went back to the base. A week later the order came to pull out. I warned your father the night before and he left with as many of the others as he could before the soldiers descended on the base and destroyed it."

"I... I remember reading about the numerous battles the year I was born..."

18 nodded. "17 and I had found the locations of a good dozen bases..."

"Y-you still haven't t-told me..."

"Krillin." 18 said simply. "Your father is Krillin."

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Three forms sat cross legged around a large crystal ball that sat between them in the short grass. Everyday for many years now these three had sat and watched the crystal ball. Sat and watched the universe spiraling out of control. They had seen the rise of both the Sai-jin and Changeling Empires.

Cold had been powerful for a mortal, even Cooler had been exceptionally powerful for a mortal. And then Frieza had been born, his power climbing much more rapidly than the rest of his family's had. When Frieza had first attained his fourth form Kibeto had called his power absurd. If Frieza's power had been absurd then Shin had no words to describe Cooler's power in his fifth form.

Meanwhile the Sai-jins were experiencing a boom in their powers as well. The former King Vegeta had been born with a power of over fifty thousand, an extreme absurdity among even the royal Sai-jin family. But he wasn't the only one, another child was born a few days later with a power of eight thousand. Then another and another. And all of these Sai-jins were without tails. It soon become the common belief among the Sai-jins that these children were a new step in evolution, Sai-jins born without their tails but the power of their Oozaru forms already present in their normal states. An occurrence the Supreme Kai had anticipated and had assumed would cause no problems.

Years passed and the former King grew up and took his post. He chose his mate. And the Sai-jins were growing restless on their own little expanse of the galaxy. And then an unknown ship entered their space. On board that ship had been King Cold and his sons. The former King of Sai-jins had gone to space and met them aboard their ship. Kibeto, Shin, and Elder Kaioshin had all expected the meeting to burst into violence. The Sai-jins and the changelings would kill each other.

But that had not happened. In fact, the opposite had occurred. King Vegeta and King Cold had become instant allies, equals, an unholy alliance the likes of which the universe had never before seen. The two kings respected each others power and Cold took a liking to the ruthless nature of the Sai-jins. The perfect warriors, powerful, relentless, and ruthless. By this point in time no Sai-jin was ever born with a power below ten thousand.

And then Prince Vegeta was born. Born with a power half that of his father, just over 750,000. But there was more to this child than that, something that would not be discovered for several years. On Prince Vegeta's third birthday his combat training had begun. The King was having little trouble landing blows upon his son, getting past his weak and unpracticed defenses with expert ease. That is, until the Prince's anger had gotten the better of him. All had then changed in a flash of blinding gold. Three year old Vegeta transformed into a Super Sai-jin, apparently having been born with the ability.

The three year old Prince of Sai-jins was the strongest Sai-jin, and he was stronger than both King Cold and Cooler's maximum powers. His power had only been expected to triple over the span of his entire life. No more than that. It would eventually make him the strongest in the universe but it was nothing for the Kai's to be overly concerned with. Especially since they had seen for themselves that the mutation that had created these incredibly powerful Sai-jins had stabilized. The following generations would be a bit weaker than the current and the powers would hold there. At least, that's how it had looked.

Then the Elder Kaioshin had been watching the Earth one day following the exploits of a young Sai-jin child, one of the last of the 'second generation' of Sai-jins, and the weakest of them all, born with a power of only 200. A couple generations before he'd have been considered average, possibly even above average for being of third class blood, but in the current generation he was a weakling. Or he had been. When the Elder Kaioshin had first found him he was fourteen years old and had a power of over 90,000. At the most a Sai-jin would increase their power 30 fold over their life times, the average being only a 10 fold increase of power.

But this child, Kakkarotto was his name, was not following the pattern. In fourteen years his power had increased 4,500 fold. While he wasn't the strongest living Sai-jin his increase in strength was absurd, no matter what his race. And this was still excluding that fact that he, too, had been born with the innate ability to transform into a Super Sai-jin. The Kai's then examined this child in earnest, peeled away his aura and his spirit, picked at the fibers of his being, and examined the powers of his DNA and found an anomaly within an anomaly.

This child was unlike any other living Sai-jin. Not only did he have the same powered up DNA set-up as the other Sai-jins, born without a tail but with the Oozaru power constantly flowing through his body, he also had a near constant Zenkai Rush flowing through his body. This meant that his power would build far more rapidly than that of any other Sai-jin, or any other being. Even if the child were to suddenly become paralyzed in bed his power would still steadily increase, despite his lack of avtivity. Still, the Kai's had not been to worried.

Oh, but if only they had known then what they knew now! How things would have been different! If they could send what they were seeing now back in time, back to that day when Kakkarotto had been born, no, when Vegeta had been born... no, not good enough. Back to when Cold himself had first been born. Then things could be fixed, things could be changed. As it was, they had only a few glimmers of hope walking about on various planets. Until then they could do little but watch.

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Another crushing shockwave of power washed out across the island beneath the two clashing titans as their fists slammed into each other's jaws. The man in the blue body suit and white and brown gloves, boots, and armor vanished suddenly. The other man wore a purple GI with red wristbands, a red belt, and black shoes. He turned and brought his arm up. The armored man's fist smashed into the other's arm with a crack and both grinned.

Both of them had crackling golden auras laced with blue lightning and golden hair, but they weren't identical. The man in the GI simply had tall and spiky golden hair, but the main in the armor had long flowing golden hair down to his waist.

"You've been training pretty hard these two years it would seem dad." the man in the GI said.

"And you've been slacking off Gohan."

Gohan shook his head. "Just trying not to kill Videl when we spar."

"She really should spar with Pan, they're closer to each others powers."

At last the two split apart from each other. "I know, but I think she loves testing her limits as much as we do. And our spars are about the only time we spend together anymore, Gero's got her working her ass off in the labs lately."

Kakkarotto shook his head as his transformation vanished in a flash of gold. He brought an arm up and wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. "That transformation is still hard to maintain for long. At this rate I'll never get to the next level."

"What makes you so sure there _is _a fourth level?" Gohan asked powering down as well and rubbing his arm where that last punch had connected. "I mean, the increase in power from level two to level three is minimal in comparison to the other forms, only a fifty percent increase. And the power drain you seem to experience is so severe... I don't see how a fourth level could exist."

"It's there, just out of my reach. I can feel it when we spar but I can never quite get there. I'm closer now than last time but it's still too far away to grasp it. What about you? Have you tried breaking through to the third level yet?"

Gohan nodded. "I have. I did like you said but can't even feel another power in there anywhere..." he shook his head and frowned. "Maybe my Human side killed off the higher levels, or it's just suppressing them. Or maybe it's like those old ape things from before, you know, the higher forms have been absorbed into my normal state. Could be why I was so damn strong at birth."

"Maybe." Kakkarotto conceded as he turned off and looked into the distance. "Or maybe you just need the right motivation. You haven't been as excited as me about new levels of power. If you'll remember, you only got to the second level because Vegeta nearly killed Videl and you wanted to turn him inside out."

Gohan crossed his arms as he floated up beside his father. "It's not so much that he nearly killed her, it's what he was doing to her that nearly killed her that ticked me off. Videl is mine and has been since I first found her. He may be fine with screwing anything female and selling Bulma out to anyone with enough money but that's not the way I do things. I already know Vegeta's attitude has rubbed off on Trunks, but I think it's spreading to Goten now too."

Kakkarotto shrugged as his personal saucer ship began to descend down from space to pick them up. "Who knows, who cares."

"You and Vegeta can be so dense some times. Sooner or later Goten, Trunks, or Vegeta is going to get one of those Humans they're always with pregnant and not realize it."

"Well, I don't know about the boys, but Vegeta kills the Human women he's been with afterwards. All except Bulma anyway. Kill the woman kill the threat."

Gohan rolled his eyes at the sound of Vegeta's personal motto coming from his father. Kakkarotto hadn't so much as looked at another woman since first seeing Chi-Chi. Well, except for Videl. Gohan had to admit though, his mother was getting rather old. She certainly wouldn't last much longer, Humans were so frail. In a way he did thank Vegeta though, for nearly killing Videl. Gave him in excuse to have Gero turn her into one of his Cyborgs. Not only did that make her stronger, far stronger than any normal Human would ever be, but it also gave her Eternal Life, just like him and the other Masters.

"Well, I'm just glad Trunks picked 18 for a mate and not Pan. I'd rather not have to kill him. Besides, I think 17 makes a good fit with her. Though I am worried that we keep breeding in more Human DNA. Only Goten and Bra don't have to worry about that."

Kakkarotto shook his head as his ship landed and the top opened up. The two Sai-jins descended down toward it. "It's not that big of a deal really." he said. "It's not like any of us will ever actually die. Even if our lines do eventually descend into so much Human garbage they're no longer Sai-jin we'll still be here to keep things going."

"True." Gohan admitted. "Though I still can't figure out how 18 put's up with Trunks and his constant 'fun' down in the holding cells. Or how he can be so damn possessive with her while still screwing anything female." As his feet touched down on the metal floor of the ship he suddenly cringed and fell to the ground grabbing his right shoulder. "Ahhhhhhhhh! Damn!" he cried clenching his eyes shut. Kakkarotto cringed just looking at Gohan's shoulder muscles spasming.

"What did Gero say about that anyway?" he asked after a moment, once Gohan had regained his focus again and was climbing back to his feet.

"He can't find a damn thing wrong." Gohan muttered. "Neither could Bulma. They poked and prodded and tested for a week and got nothing. Well, no, they did figure out that whatever the hell the problem is, it drains my energy for a moment when it happens. I could have told them that much myself, hell, first time it happened I was in Super and it knocked me back down."

"If that happens during a fight, even just a spar..."

"I know. I'll talk to Gero again when we get back to Saiya."

Kakkarotto nodded. "We need to make a short stop over on Planet Cold first though, pick your mother up again."


	3. Escape

A/N: Oops. Um, scratch what I said about Adrift not getting powerlevels. I will be putting those up within a week or so. Don't know why I said it wouldn't have them.

_Chapter Three - Escape_

The wind blew fierce and biting, howling as it plowed through the valley's of the sharp Glacier Peaks. The whiping winds blew the falling snow about savagely making it impossible for the young woman on the balcony to see anything but white. With a sigh she turned and entered her room again shutting the door and locking out the cold. "I hate this planet, I want to go back to Saiya." she said pouting. "I don't even know why I'm here..."

"You're here because you didn't want to be away from me for four months." a man said from across the room. He was sitting at a table bent over a bunch of papers and writing something.

The young woman sighed. "Not that we've had any fun since we got here. It's been non-stop blizzard for the last month and nothing but you working..."

The man sighed. "I told you this was a business trip Hun." he said running a hand through his black hair. "I need to finish up these reports for the morning, and then I've got a meeting with Cooler that'll probably go all day." He looked across the room at Pan who walked over and fell back onto the bed bored. "Why don't you call Bra? Have her come out here."

"And do what?"

"Well..." He sighed, she had a point. Planet Cooler wasn't exactly full of fun. No theaters or malls or anything like that. Suddenly he grinned. "If you want to free up my schedule you could always go talk to Cooler. Tell him you're bored and ask him to spar with you. I'm sure he'll be too sore to move tomorrow. And I'd be eternally grateful for a day off."

"Oh?" she asked sitting up and cocking an eyebrow. "Just _how_ grateful are we talking about here?" she asked coyly.

"Well. Since you seem to like this room so much I wouldn't mind staying here all day." he replied with a grin.

Pan leapt off the bed, walked over to him, and kissed him. "That's the best idea you've had all month 17." she said grinning. With that she turned and left the room.

17 chuckled as she left. Then, with a sigh, he turned his eyes back down to the paperwork. Reports after reports, so annoying! Why did they even need him for this? Didn't they have paper pushers for this sort of thing? And it wasn't like Cooler even cared about what was happening in the other parts of the universe. 17 closed his eyes and tilted his head back. "Boring, boring, boring." he muttered.

"Well, maybe I can help with that." a voice said from the door.

17 lowered his head and opened his eyes again. Standing in the doorway was a blue skinned woman with long red hair that glistened in the light. She had purple eyes, was only about four foot tall, and wore the normal blue and yellow armor of a non fighter. "Shiva, what's up?"

"Not sure exactly sir. I received a call from Saiya earlier, it was Ms. 18. She said to tell you the guest she's been expecting has arrived..." Shiva was obviously confused by the message, but 17 knew.

"Thanks Shiva." he said with a nod and a wave. She nodded and left. Now 17 was happy that Pan was gone, she'd be to nosey. The Android stood and moved over to his communications console. It took a moment to break through the storm and a few more seconds to get through on Saiya. Finally 18's face filled the screen. "I got your message. How is she?"

"Eating." 18 laughed. "I've got the cover set up already too."

"Good. Listen, I heard this morning that Kakkarotto, Gohan, and Videl are on their way back to Saiya... I still think you should talk to one of them. If any of the other Masters would understand, it would be those three."

"I'll think about it."

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Lightning flashed overhead as the constant downpour continued. "God, I hate this weather." Frieza said, his tail whipping about behind him in agitation. "Non-stop rain for months, not a single ray of sun shine. I'm tempted to move my palace to another location." He glanced behind him at the large monitor as the sound of chuckles reached his ears.

The large monitor displayed Cold, larger than life, and sipping some wine. "I did warn you, didn't I?"

"Yes, yes, you did." Frieza said with a sigh and turning around. "It just feels like I'm drowning, with this water falling constantly." He shook his head. "Anyway, what's this about father? I thought you had important business on Earth?"

"That's where I am." Cold said. "I'm simply collecting reports at the moment. But tomorrow I'm expecting a visit from someone... important."

"Oh? Do tell father, do tell."

Cold grinned. "Inferna's coming by. I think she's finally going to join the Empire. Her galaxy is all that's left to claim, and then we'll have all four."

"You're kidding? She's finally going to join? Took her long enough. What made her change her mind?"

"She's getting old." Cold said with a shrug. "But that's not why I contacted you. I was wondering if you'd found that Human yet... what's his name? Tao?"

"No, not yet. He's a slippery one. I just got a report in a few minutes ago from Kanassa. Seems he attacked them looking for some kind of ancient relics of theirs. Something called Soul Spheres. I don't know, but he's up to something."

"I'd say." Cold said nodding. "Your brother called me earlier, told me what it was that was stolen from that temple on Arlia. Something call the Soul Forge."

"Soul Forge? And now the Soul Spheres... that can't be coincidence... But how could they be on separate planets?"

"The ancients perhaps?" Cold said with a shrug. "He could be after something of theirs, putting it back together. Like that earring thing we found on Meat. What is it again? Potoro?"

"Potara, father, Potara. And you could be right. I'll send out the Ginyu force to track down the reports and find him, Zarban's had no luck. I wish his Father was still alive, Zarbon was far more useful, even if he was weaker."

"Good. I'll speak to you again after my meeting with Inferna." With that the screen went blank.

He stood there looking at his reflection in the screen for a moment. The sight of himself in his fourth form, he'd taken to remaining in it a few years ago, made him wonder how much longer it would take for him to reach the fifth form like his brother. He smiled at that. Once it happened he'd become the fourth strongest being in the universe. Only Vegeta, Kakkarotto, and Gohan would be stronger than him then. Then he'd be able to make that annoying Cell eat dirt for once. "Well, it's not that important. I have other matters of more importance."

Frieza turned and floated out of the room and into the main hallway. His throne chambers were down the hall to the left but he turned right as his destination was elsewhere. _"Perhaps I should reconsider Ginyu's request for replacements for Guldo and Burter. It has been five years since Guldo died and three since Burter's death. The three of them have dropped in performance over that time... Not sure if Zarban is their type though, but Dodarla, she's as bizarre as them, nothing like her father."_

Frieza rounded a corner and came to wait at what appeared to be a dead end. However, the floor opened up and he began to float down. There were only a few elevators in the palace, most of them were just chutes that you had to float up and down on your own. After a few moments he emerged through the ceiling on another floor, the chute he'd taken was a direct route from the top floor to the bottom. The hall he'd emerged into was long and dimly lit. He flared his aura up slightly to brighten the way.

He floated past several doors with small windows but ignored them. He'd nearly reached the end of the hall, passing several other halls along the way, before finally stopping. Turning he pulled open the door. Inside the chamber was one man chained to the wall with special shackles designed to hold stronger people. He looked almost like a Sai-jin or Human, except he was bald, and antennas, and was green. "Well hello again Nail." The man simply grunted and glared. "Heh heh heh. My, my, where _are _your manners? It's polite to say hello."

"Piss off Frieza." Nail spat.

Frieza shook his head and laughed lightly. Suddenly his tail whipped out and the point slammed into and through his abdomen and poked a hole in the wall behind him. Nail coughed and spat up purple blood onto Frieza as the Changeling pulled his tail back out, also covered in blood. Frieza crossed his arms as he waited for Nail to regenerate. At first the Namek had avoided doing so in an attempt to die so Frieza wouldn't get the information he wanted.

That had been corrected when Frieza had shown the Namek a handful of the other prisoners and said he'd kill them all if he didn't regenerate. Nail thought he was bluffing until Frieza had blasted off one of their heads. That had changed the Namek's attitude quickly, as Frieza had hoped. The Changeling smiled as the wound healed. "Now, Nail, let's start over. Hello."

Nail growled and spat more blood onto Frieza's face. The Changeling narrowed his eyes and his fist shot forward smashing into Nail's stomach with a loud crack. "You are trying my patience Namek. Now, once more. Hello."

Nail smirked. "Fuck you."

Frieza raised an arm and pointed the finger at one of Nail's knees and then blasted a small hole through it and then aimed at the other and blasted a hole in it as well, the whole time Nail screaming despite not wanting to. "If you wont be civil, Namek, than neither will I. So let's get to the point, shall we? Where is your planet?"

"Sorry Frieza, but you'll get nothing from me." Nail said raggedly as his knees healed. "I'll never tell you where Namek is, I wont let you slaughter my people."

"You are beginning to annoy me Namek." Frieza said coldly. "You still have a few hundreds years of life left in you, and I'll never die. You'll break eventually. Everyone does." Frieza paused for a moment and then smirked. "Though I could speed things up a bit, couldn't I?"

Nail looked at him confused as the Changeling turned about and floated toward the door. "I shall be back shortly Nail. And then I will learn what I want to know." and with that Frieza vanished out the door.

Nail let out a sigh of relief at the short reprieve though he was worried about what Frieza was up to. _"I can't let Frieza know where Namek is, no matter what. If I do then the wish will have been for nothing and my people will be destroyed. It was Guru's last desire to have Namek hidden from those who did not know it was there to protect his people, I will not fail him, no matter what."_

Nail waited in silence for several moments. His mind tried to prepare itself for whatever Frieza had in mind. Several moments passed and still the Changeling did not return. Nail was beginning to think that, perhaps, Frieza had been bluffing. Or maybe he'd been called away on something. That's when he realized the cell door had been left open. _"Frieza, you fool! I **knew **it was only a matter of time before you slipped up, and now is my chance!"_

Nail turned his head toward his left arm and fired twin beams of energy from his eyes cutting off his hand and freeing the arm. In an instant he regrew his hand and then did the same to the other arm. With both arms freed he blasted off his feet, cringing at the pain, and floated free and regenerated them as well. Nail pushed his power as low as it would go and stretched his senses out for nearby powers.

His mind cringed as it found dozens of other people within the cells around him, all of varying strengths, and all of their energies laced with pain and suffering. _"I wish I could help you but I'm afraid I cannot my friends. I must escape from here in order to keep my people safe, they must come first."_

Sensing no powers of any threat Nail moved from the confines of his cell and turned down the hall. He moved quickly down it to one of the adjacent corridors and turned down it as well. He could remember feeling Frieza's approach for the first few years, he'd always kept his senses open then, and always Frieza came straight down the hall. His best chance was to go a different way.

He moved down the hall quickly and took a right at the next intersection. After going for a while he made another left. At the end of the hall he glanced up at the ceiling and found an opening. He frowned, flying up would mean needing to raise his power to a detectable level. _"Surely there has to be a stairway or an elevator somewhere."_

He turned to go back and then felt Frieza's power enter his range of sensing again and moving toward his former cell, and with a few other powers with him. _"Damn, no other choice."_ Nail raised his power slightly and began a slow ascent up the chute. As he went he kept his senses trained on Frieza and the others with him. He'd gotten at least half-way up before he felt a minor spike to Frieza's power and then one of the smaller ones vanished.

**"Find him now!"** Frieza shouted. Nail grinned and continued his climb. A moment later he felt two of the low powers nearing his location and looked down. A second later he heard shouts that they'd found him and, with a silent curse, powered up completely and shot up the rest of the chute in an instant.

He broke through the door at the top and emerged into one of the upper floors. He could feel a few powers in his general area but nothing to worry about. With a quick glance around him he picked a direction and shot off that way, his green aura flaring up about him quickly. As he moved he made several turns at random looking for an exit as more and more powers began to gather behind him.

And then two high powers smashed into his senses from in front and above. Quickly he pulled to a stop intending to turn back but the ceiling a few feet away exploded downward and two forms descended down. The first was a tall man with a blue-green skin tone that was much closer to blue than green. He had long dark green hair that hung down to his waist and over his shoulders. His father had always tied it back but Zarban preferred to let it hang loose. His armor was white and brown with a blue white cape. It was, in fact, his father's old armor.

Floating down with him was a woman with dark pink, almost purple looking, skin. She had several small spikes on her arms and the top of her head, pointy ears, and blue lips. Like Zarban she wore white and brown armor but had no cape. She was a little shorty than him and her arms were thicker. Both had smirks on their faces as they looked at their prey. "Look what I found." she said.

"Looks like a lizard to me Dodarla." Zarbon replied. "I like fried lizard."

Dodarla cracked her neck. "Sounds good. How bout we make some?"

Zarban smirked and let out a cry as he clenched his fists. His armor, shorts, boots, and gloves all bulged massively and then shrank down some. Nail took a step back at the rush of power. The increase wasn't as great as other transformations he'd encountered, only about a third, but it still made this alien a bit stronger than him. And it made him rather ugly. His arms and legs were now massive and his face deformed, the nose now missing.

With a grin Zarban shot down the hall at Nail who just barely dodged around a fist aimed for his face. Quickly he brought his knee up and smashed it into the large alien's stomach and then backhanded him through a wall. Turning he blocked a punch from Dodarla before blasting her in the face with a quick KI blast. His two attackers out of the way for the moment Nail shot off down the hall again, both warriors soon trailing after him.

At last he reached a wall with a few windows showing that it led outside. Once more his eyes flashed and twin beams of energy cut loose and through the wall creating an opening for him. He passed through the hole leaving the warm confines of the palace behind him and emerging into the raging thunderstorm outside. The rain pelted against him as he moved quickly toward the ground and trees. Landing he pushed his power down again and started running.

"Shit!" he cried jumping off to the left and moving quickly as a large orange blast of KI surged down and smashed a massive crater into the forest floor. Nail was thrown a few dozen yards and through several trees before landing on the ground hard. He pulled himself back up shaking his head. With a grunt he ripped a piece of wood out of his abdomen and pitched it aside before fixing his injury. Once more he was back on his feet and moving.

He could still feel the two of them in the air searching for him. Their scouters would be useless, they wouldn't be able to tell him apart from the wild life. So their eyes scanned the forest for any sign of the running green man, not an easy task when the trees were green as well. Nail blended in far too easily for their tastes.

"Dodarla, you go left, I'll head right." Zarban replied in a deepened voice. "Fire off some shots as you go, try and flush him out."

"Right." she replied with a nod. The two split up and moved off in search of the Namek. As she went Dodarla fired several pink blasts of energy down at the forest below her blasting out sections several yards across. With each blast she got more and more annoyed. Finally she raised both arms above her and charged a large blast and pitched it down. The explosion rocked the entire planet and blasted out an area three hundred yards across. At the edge of the span she spied her prey regrowing an arm.

"Found him Zarban!" she shouted out before diving down toward him.

Nail growled and turned toward her, charging energy in his palms quickly intending to blast her. He never got the chance. Another voice rang out from within the trees and a few dozen yards to his left. "Dodon Ray!" Nail's eyes widened as he felt the power spike rapidly and then a large stream of golden energy tore free of the trees straight for Dodarla. The alien raised her arms to block the powerful attack which exploded upon impact and flung her backwards. She fell, smoke drifting off of her body, and power dipping down quickly.

Zarban reached the area a second later and saw no sight of the Namek or the person who'd attacked Dodarla. Dropping quickly he checked for a pulse. "Good, she's just out cold." he said changing back to normal and thumbing his scouter. "This is Zarban, sector 6, Dodarla is down and I've lost the target."

"Damn it!" Frieza's voice cried over the line making Zarban cringe.

"There's more, Master Frieza. The Namek wasn't the source of the attack that downed Dodarla. I heard the attack name, Dodon Ray. Tien has never left Earth, that means that..."

"Tao!" Frieza roared. "That wretched Human has made a fool of me for the last time! Zarban, contact Ginyu, tell him to find the Human and kill him!"

"And the Namek?"

"I want him alive!"

"Yes sir."


	4. End of the World

_Chapter Four - End of the World_

The rattling clang of metal echoed through the empty warehouse as Tien closed and locked the door. Turning he followed Krillin, Enzeru, and Mitsuki across the warehouse to the elevator. They then rode it down into the Earth. "I... I still can't... I mean, are you sure?" Mitsuki asked. "Wouldn't someone know..."

Enzeru shook her head. "No one knows. They thought our mother was dead well before I was even born. I don't know who my father actually is but it's someone in the Empire. After he was through with my mother he tried to kill her, luckily the attack missed her heart and she recovered. We're only half sisters. I was seven when you were born, nine when the Imperial Soldiers stormed the building we were living in looking for some resistance members.

"I managed to get away but father was killed and they captured you and mom and that was the last I saw of either of you. Tien and the others raised me and trained me." Enzeru paused here as she glanced over to Mitsuki. "What about you? What happened to you, and to mother?"

Mitsuki shook her head. "I don't know my mom. I have no memories of her, I was raised... I grew up in the lab. The only people I know are Gero, Videl, and the Androids."

"Oh, that sounds horrible." Krillin said.

"It wasn't the greatest, I was experimented on for years while Gero tried to increase my power. Well, actually, it was a few of his assistants. At the time Gero was working on his Android project, but he would come by now and then to check up on the progress."

"I'm so sorry Mitsuki. If I had known..."

"It's okay." Mitsuki said with a shrug. "I survived and I'm stronger for it. But you, Enzeru... you're the strongest Human on the planet!" As the elevator doors opened the conversation continued as the girls caught up on their pasts. The two women went off down a seperate hall as the guys went to find Yamcha.

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"So, you mean?" Yamcha asked in shock.

"Yeah, it's _the_ Mitsuki." Krillin replied. "The poor girl had a hell of a childhood, but she still came out damn good."

"You are kidding, right?" Yamcha asked. "I mean, she let those goons..."

Tien shook his head. "It's not that simple out there Yamcha. The universe isn't black and white, it's shades of gray. And you missed her speech and the conversation we had here. When we found her she was trying to save someone, and when that didn't work she did a mercy killing, exactly like we would have done. And then she decided to go back and stop the two Sai-jins."

"Yeah, sure." Yamcha said walking off. "Try explaining that to Rei or her little sister Ukiyo. Or how about their brother Iki? Oh, wait, you can't, he's dead." With that Yamcha vanished through the door.

"That could have gone better." Krillin said frowning.

Tien sighed. "Well, he's got something of a point. And he's still upset over Suki, he's never let go. It's been twenty years now but he just wont move on. I just hope he doesn't take it out on Mitsuki. I could hear it in her voice earlier, the things she's done over the years are killing her inside, I think if Yamcha lost it on her she'd not even bother to try and stop him. That would definately put a rift between him and Enzeru and we need to stay together."

"Ya." Krillin kicked at a stone on the floor. "Come on, we'd better get to the meeting room. The two girls we rescued will be there, Yamcha's going to be there, and so is Mitsuki."

"Right."

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Cold stood in the large courtyard area watching the arrival of Inferna, his full twelve foot height, not counting his horns, dwarfing the soldiers about him. This would be his first personal meeting with the Empress of the South Galaxy. It had been six years now since they'd first sent scouts and probes into the South Galaxy exploring it and discovering Inferna's little galactic empire. She'd instantly been interested in this large empire that spanned three galaxies, and had been worried that perhaps the intention of the Masters was to take over her empire, by force.

Of course, at the time, she'd felt that anyone who tried to take her empire would be in for the fight of their lives. To highlight this point, 3 years ago, she had requested a meeting with any of the Masters with the free time. Cell had been in the southern quadrant of the west galaxy at the time, and therefore, the closest to her. So he'd taken up the offer. When she'd recieved the information on the Empire before his arrival she'd learned some quite unexpected information. Like how young this empire was and how quickly it had grown.

Another thing that had caught her off guard was the number of Masters, of rulers in this empire. Eighteen of them. That was... beyond astounding to her. But then, with the size of the empire, it was understandable. Yet the thing that caught her attention the most was Cell's position in the Empire. Fourth. He was the fourth strongest of the Masters. She knew that the meeting would be a good gauge of the powers of the Masters though she doubted that Cell would be strong enough to even pose a challange to her.

And then she'd felt it. She'd not been first, one of her aides had sensed it and then she'd reached out as well, after seeing his face pale. She instantly knew why, this Cell, his power was nearly double that of her own! This knowledge had sent her reeling. He was only the fourth strongest and he was almost twice her power! She'd made sure to ask him, after his arrival, how close he was to the other Master's above him.

That's when she'd found out that the true ruler, the man with the title of King, was only the third strongest of the Masters. Vegeta, a Sai-jin who'd been born a prince. And then had come the next blow to Inferna's power and belief that she was a powerful fighter. Vegeta was more than two and a half times stronger than him, and that Gohan, the second strongest, was about a third stronger than Vegeta.

What was nice to know was that the gap between second and first wasn't nearly as massive. Yet, at the level power of Kakkarotto and Gohan that small percentage of difference was greater than all of Cell's power. That had shaken her beyond words, that such power was a possibility! Cell had given her all the time she wanted to adjust and to accept the offer to join the ranks of the Masters.

She'd found that odd, that these Masters wouldn't just kill her outright and take over. Cell would have been enough to handle the job. But then she'd been informed that the eighteen Masters would live forever. If she didn't join they'd merely wait for her death and then take up the reins of her empty throne. If she did join, well, then she would live forever as well. What's more, she'd retain her control of the South Galaxy.

Cell had explained to her that the three Galaxies had been split up among the Masters. The Sai-jins controlled the North Galaxy, the Androids ran the West Galaxy, and the Cold Family ran the East Galaxy. She'd asked about the original leadership of those other galaxies and found that the East had had no single ruler and no one of a power high enough to have even given the weakest of the Masters a good workout.

The West Galaxy though, that had been run by a very powerful pair of warriors. Yo-Yo and Glaive, each members of a different race and each, at the time of meeting, on par with the powers of Cooler. Both had also refused to join the Masters and had, in fact, begun attacking the North Galaxy with the intent of overthrowing the Masters. According to Cell it had been Gohan that had gone to deal with them and had, in the process, obliterated the entire solar system the two had been in.

Cold's interest perked up as the door to Inferna's saucer ship, a much different design to what he was used to, hissed and began to open. He noted with interest that her power was rather low at the moment, at least in comparison to her maximum. She was obviously in her first form, one of three. That was good to know, it meant she was comfortable and wasn't going to be stupid and try and take out the Masters.

A moment later a small and slim woman was walking down the ramp toward him, she was only about four and a half foot tall. Her shins, forams, and upper body were encased in a natural armor that was a dark red in color. Her skin was orange and her shoulder length hair was a bright red. Her eyes, which took in everything about her, including the towering form of Cold, were an ice blue. Other than her natural armor the only thing she wore was a pair of dark red shorts.

"Inferna." Cold said with a nod. "It is a pleasure to finally meet you. I am Master Cold, head of the Cold Family."

Inferna smiled and nodded in return. "I thought your sons were stronger than you?"

"They are, they are, but I still run the family. They may have far more power than I, but I am the one with the brains."

The orange skinned woman chuckled. "Sounds like my daughter. She's not surpassed me yet but in time she will, but she's too impatient, never thinks before she acts."

Cold grinned. "Sounds like she'd fit right in with my sons. Shall we head in?"

"Yes, it's a bit colder out here than I'm used to."  
  
Cold turned and lead her inside. "Yes, I'd forgotten that your world has an average temprature of a hundred and twenty. I suppose seventy would feel rather cold in comparison. Anyway, Master Vegeta regrets not being able to meet you in person but he, and unfortunately, most of the Masters are quite busy lately. If it's not one thing it's another."

"Yeah, I know how that goes and I've only got one galaxy to keep an eye on."

Cold lead her through the halls in silence after that. It took only a few moments to reach the meeting chamber and both took a seat. "I'm going to get straight to the point." Inferna said after a moment. "I want to know what will change after I become a Master, and how I gain this Eternal Youth that supposedly comes with the title."

"What changes is merely your presence within the Empire. You will still remain in charge of the South Galaxy, you'll just be a member of our Empire. This will open up trade routes between us of course, among other things. And of course, you will have to follow any orders given by Master Vegeta, Master Gohan, or Master Kakkarotto. As for the Eternal Youth, all that's needed is to be admitted, the effect will be instant."

"How?"

"An old wish on some old artifacts with some impressive powers." Cold said dissmissively. "I don't know the exact details, only that the wish was that all Masters would never age beyond 20. Apparently, thanks to the phrasing, everytime a new Master comes along the effect of the wish is instantly applied."

Inferna nodded. She was about to ask more when a sudden beeping sounded from the console behind Cold. He turned and looked. "Orange level, one moment, this is important." Cold said reaching out and activating the system. The large monitor flared to life and filled with the face of one of his sons. "Frieza, what is it?"

"It's Tao!" Frieza cried agitatedly. "He's here, on **_my_** world!"

"You're certain?" Cold asked arching a brow.

"Yes. Somehow Nail managed to escape from the holding cells and then from the palace itself. Zarban and Dodarla chased after him and, according to Zarban, Dodarla was knocked out by a Dodon Ray! Since Tien is still on Earth that means it _has _to be Tao!"

"That's not certain actually." Cold said with a sigh. "Tien and his little friends haven't been seen in a few weeks. He may have left his world."

"How do these Humans keep causing us so much grief?" Frieza asked rubbing his head. "They are weaklings!"

"Tao and the others are the exceptions, there are always exceptions Frieza. Look at the Masters, we are evidence enough of this. These five are merely the Human conterparts of us."  
  
"Yes, I suppose you are right. I have Ginyu out tracking the Human and Namek down now and I'm trying to get through to Saiya."

"Oh? What for?"

"I spoke with Vegeta a few weeks ago and he's as annoyed by these Humans as I am. I feel like venting, I'm going to ask for permission to obliterate the entire planet. That should make me feel better, and it'll get rid of Enzeru, Tien, Krillin, and Yamcha. We'll only have to find and kill Tao then, and that should be handled shortly, once Ginyu finds them."

Cold sighed and clicked off the console before turning to look at Inferna again. "You see? Never thinks."

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"You're late." Vegeta huffed as Trunks walked into the room.

"Sorry Father, I lost track of time again."

Vegeta merely snorted from where he sat at the head of the table. Trunks rolled his eyes and took the chair on Vegeta's left. He then nodded to his sister who sat on thier father's right side and then to his mother who sat directly on Vegeta's right at the head of the table. He then turned his gaze down the length of the table at the large montior and turned his chair to get a better view of it.

A second later the monitor flickered and came to life. A similar table sat in a similar room with three people seated along its length and looking back at them. "Ah, Master Vegeta, hello." the man in the center said with a small nod. The man in the center, King of the Eawpon race, looked almost Sai-jin. The only differences were minor cosmetics. He, like all of his people, was bald and had four eyes. Other than those differences they looked almost Sai-jin. On either side of him were two short, blue, frog-like people. Gorf's.

"Sorry for the delay Sword, my son has no concept of time."

"Oh, it's not problem, I just got here myself. Seems Dato and Birbit here forget to tell me about the meeting until five minutes ago."

Vegeta laughed. "Good help is impossible to find," he glanced over at Trunks, "Or make, these days." Turning his attention back to the screen he continued. "Anyway, this meeting should be short and simple. We captured Axe, Spear, and Staff last week trying to sneak onto Saiya. They also had the blueprints for the palace and a good deal of poison." With that he looked over to Trunks who nodded and continued.

"I just came from the holding cells. Axe and Staff wont talk no matter what. Staff is currently recieving medical attention but Axe didn't pull through. Spear, on the other hand, offered up information in exchange for our protection. She gave us names and locations of rebels in your sector of the West Galaxy. We only ask that you handle the situation, these are your people."

"I shall look into it as soon as I recieve the information." He paused for a moment as he bit his lip. "Um, how is Spear?"

"She's fine." Trunks said with a shrug. "She's being moved to a private guest room later today and a guard will be posted outside." _"Meanwhile I'll be inside..."_ "But she doesn't want to leave Saiya just yet. She's fearful that she'll be killed for giving us information."

Sword nodded. "Understood. Send us the names and locations and I'll deal with them."

"Good." Vegeta said leaning back in his chair. "Until Spear feels safe she'll remain in the palace under watch." With that the screen went blank. Trunks was just about to get up when the computer beeped indicating an incoming call. Vegeta pulled up the call and arched a brow at the site of Frieza. The Changelings didn't often contact them. "What is it Frieza?"

"Tao is on my planet." he replied frowning. "I am growing tired of these Humans and their constant interference. They are problematic in more ways than one, I say we just destroy the lot of them."

Vegeta sighed. "The Humans do have their uses." he said.

"Perhaps, but are you willing to risk a Hybrid being born without your knowledge? You know it's bound to happen sooner or later, especially with the number of lower level Sai-jins you have on Earth to deal with the rebels there."

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Krillin closed the door quietly and looked about the large room. There were a handful of people already gathered and talking. The resistance wasn't much on Earth, just a few dozen people. Most of them had powers under a thousand too. He, Tien, Yamcha, and Enzeru were the strongest by far and still it wasn't enough. He moved over to where Tien stood with Enzeru and Mitsuki. "Any sign of Yamcha yet?"

"No." Tien said shaking his head. "I think he may have gone to get Rei and Ukiyo himself."

A second later the door opened again and Yamcha came in with the two girls trailing after him. As they neared Rei saw Mitsuki and her eyes widened in fear. "It's okay, she can't hurt you." Yamcha said looking back at her before looking over at them again and frowning. Mitsuki started to walk over toward the girls but stopped and looked away.

"Ehem." Enzeru said clearing her throat. That got the room to quiet down qucikly. "Ladies and gentlemen," she began looking them over. "I'd like to introduce someone, this is my sister, Mitsuki." She motioned back to the other woman who still wore her armor. "She was formly a member of the Imperial Soldiers, raised and trained by them. But now she's going to help us." Enzeru smiled. "She was the strongest Imperial Soldier on the planet, that means Cold is our strongest threat now."

"Actually." Mitsuki said looking them over. "Inferna should be on the planet by now."

"Inferna?" Tien asked.

"She's Queen of the South Galaxy. Rumors say that she's meeting Cold to join the Masters."

"Damn, how strong is she?" Yamcha asked.

"Close to Cooler's power, or so I've heard."

"Oh man, that's not good." Krillin muttered. "Another one to worry about."

"And you say she's here, now?" Enzeru asked.

"If not then she will be soon."

The four Humans all looked at each other. Tien was about to say something when a small group of people came running in through one of the doors. "What is it?" Enzeru asked.

One of the soldiers came to a stop. "Re-reports are coming in." he panted. "From S-Saiya... Fri-Frieza is c-coming! He's go-going to d-destroy the pla-planet!"

"What! You can't be serious!" Yamcha yelled.

"It's true." another soldier said. "Vegeta wants to stop the chance of a Hybrid that's not a Master and Frieza's just fed up with us in general."

"How long?" Enzeru asked.

"Frieza will be here in a week, tops."

The room remained quiet as this knowledge sank in. Tien and the others exchanged glances. They'd worried something like this might happen though they'd not expected it to merely be a whim. Still, they had an escape plan, one that could only be excuted at the last moment without being noticed. "Alright!" Enzeru called out. "You heard them, it's finally happened! We are now at code red, Plan Omega is active! I repeat, we are now at code red, Plan Omega is active! Spread the word people!"

Krillin watched as the room emptied quickly. After a few moments everyone was gone leaving only him. "It's the end of the world... man, I _am_ going to die without a girl."


	5. Untold Horror

_Chapter Five - Untold Horror_

Pan was adjusting her armor as she walked. She hated wearing the ugly white and light brown armor, and the blue body suit always felt like it was going to suffocate her. Unfortunately it was considered impolite for any Master, other than Kakkarotto or Gohan, to appear before another in a formal situation without being dressed formally. Since Pan was here on offical business and would be entering Cooler's throne room it was a formal situation.

After a few moments she stopped outside the large double doors that lead into his throne room and nodded to the guards outside. "Oh, Ms. Pan." one of them said with a bow. "What brings you here?"

"I need to talk to Master Cooler." she said a bit annoyed.

"One moment please." the guard said before dissapearing through a small door in the side of the wall. No doubt a guard station where he could talk to Cooler without entering his throne room. He emerged a moment later as the large double doors began to swing inward. "Master Cooler will see you."

Grinning Pan entered the room and looked about. It wasn't as ornate as Vegeta's was, or Cell's either, but it was impressive. Even if a bit dreary. _"Changelings have the worst tastes." _she thought before her eye settled on Cooler. Like his brother he was in his fourth form. He'd remain in his fifth but it was as cumbersome for day to day use as the third form. "Hello Master Cooler."

"Mistress Pan." Cooler said with slight intrest. "This is the first I've seen of you since you landed, I hope everything's okay with Master 17..."

"17's fine." Pan said. "I just got bored, thought you might be up for a spar?"

Cooler grinned. "Actually, I could use a good work out. All I've got for sparring partners around here most of the time is the Armored Squadron and they're weaklings. Shall we head outside? I don't want to damage my palace after all." Pan nodded as Cooler stood and led the way out a door behind his throne. They passed through a long hall that twisted, turned, rose, and fell seemingly at random. "This tunnel is a direct route to four locations." Cooler explained. "My chambers, the throne room, the court yard, and outside the palace walls."

The walls were plain for the entire trip, save two doors on the left and one to the right. Eventually though, they emerged into the raging blizzard a good hundred yards beyond the palace walls. The two walked out into the depths of the blizzard and turned to face each other. In the whiteout conditions they needed to follow each other's KI to know where they were.

Suddenly there was a loud cry from a few yards into the storm and the snow was blasted away from the two warriors. Cooler had his head and arms thrown back as power surged through his body. Horns began to grow from his head as his body grew and the spikes on his arms grew. A moment later his transformation into his fifth form was finished and the clouds over head were partially parted. He lowered his head as the face mask closed.

Pan grinned as she clenched her fists and let out a cry. There's a flash as her blue aura flares to life and she throws her head back. The area begins to shake madly as the clouds overhead part even more. Her aura pulses rapidly as energy arcs about her and across the landscape. Her scream builds louder as her hair flaps up into the air and her eyes begin to shimmer. A second later they turn green as her hair begins to shift gold. And then, with one last cry and in a rush of power, her aura shifts color as well and the transformation finishes.

Eyes now green, hair now spiking and golden, and aura golden as well, Pan grinned. She had the clear advantage in power. Of the 'children' she was the only one stronger than Cooler in just the first level, which was good since it was the only transformation she had. Of the children only Trunks could go to level two, not that Vegeta thought much of it since his level two was weaker than Pan's level one.

"You ready Cooler?"

"Sure, I want a full work out from this kid." he said grinning under the face mask. "I have someting I need to try out."

Pan arched an eyebrow but grinned. "Alright, one night in the Regen Tanks it is Cooler." With a flash of gold Pan launched in at Cooler. The Changeling grinned behind his face mask as well. He loved the thrill of battle almost as much as any Sai-jin. In a flash of deep purple Cooler launches across at Pan as well and the two meet halfway. Pan's fist cracks into Cooler's outstretched hand as he catches her fist and his foot cracks into her raised leg blocking the blow.

The two held that position for a long moment as the clouds moved in overhead again and the snow began to fall about them once more. Then, suddenly, they vanished. Flashes of gold and purple lit up the sky dancing over the clouds and reflecting across the icey ground and mountains. The thunderous cracks of the blows echoed across the landscape, shook the mountains, and rattled the castle.

The soliders inside came running out quickly to see what the commotion was as 17 walked out onto the balcony to watch as best he could. His eyes couldn't follow the battle completely but the energy scanners Gero had given him a few years back were able to help a bit. He grinned as he watched the two of them go. He knew to the soldiers down below that this looked like an all out battle but he could tell they were still just warming up, neither was at full power at the moment.

A sudden sucession of cracks and purple flashes tore through the sky ripping the clouds apart and sending a golden comet toward the mountains. Pan impacted with such force she was knocked clear through and out the other side bringing the entire peak down into the valleys below. Just before she smashed into the next mountain, Cooler appeared behind her and kicked her toward the ground.

As she fell she flipped around and slammed feet first into the ground instantly springing back up. She shot straight up at Cooler who vanished seconds before she reached him. With a flash of gold she dodged to the left as he appeared and swung his fist. 17 smirked, their powers were building up now, and Cooler was using the Instant Transmission. The warm-up was over.

Pan shot in at him again and he blocked with one arm before headbutting her and then spinning around and smashing his tail across her face. He moved in quickly and slammed a fist into her stomach before throwing another punch aimed at her jaw. Pan slipped around it missing the hit by inches, the breeze rustling her golden hair. With a smirk and cry she moved up, spun, and smashed her foot into the side of Cooler's head sending him rocketing into the mountain himself. He wasn't knocked through however, merely lodged into the rock face.

Pan charged in at him quickly and smashed a fist into his abdomen with a loud crack and then began to pummel him pushing him through the mountain blow by blow. Half-way through he let out a loud cry and blasted her off of him shattering the mountain and sending debris flying out for miles. The storm clouds had been forced clear of the area for well over a mile now by their powers.

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Shin gulped as he watched the 'spar' on Planet Cooler. Granted, he could defeat either of these two with ease himself, but it was still a sight to witness. He glanced up as another cry came from the Elder Kai as he cheered on the match. "Please, this isn't the time..."

"Oh, you need to relax some. Maybe if we're lucky they'll kill each other." he said watching. "Or at least she'll lose all that cumbersome armor..."

Shin and Kibito's faces went blank at that statement. The Elder Kai had been free of the Z sword going on fifteen years now but... they still weren't used to having their very own perverted old man. Shaking his head Shin looked back down at the battle just as Pan was smashed through the mountain. "I just hope that I am wrong." he said. "If Cooler truely is as close to unlocking the sixth form as I think he is, this spar may be just enough to finish the job."

"Yes, that would go with what he said before the battle." the Elder Kai replied. "But it's not a big deal, the fifth transformation doesn't follow the pattern of the other four."

"Pattern?" Kibito asked.

Shin nodded. "Yes, the first transformation doubles a Changeling's base power, the second triples it, the third is a four fold increase, and the fourth is a five fold increase. In the end the fifth form of a Changeling is one hundred and twenty times stronger than their base form. Their sixth form is only a doubling of power though, two hundred and forty times stronger than base. It's due to the physical limitations of the Changeling's own body."

"So, if Cooler does push through, his power will only go beyond that of Cell's, but no more. It'll upset the balance a little but it's nothing compared to what will happen when Freiza breaks through to the fourth level. That will be soon as well, I can feel it." the Elder Kai said as Pan started pounding Cooler through the mountain.

"This is it..." Shin breathed as the mountain exploded apart. "He's broken through... How do these mortals keep doing this? There powers have grown beyond anything that should be possible..."

The three Kais watched closely as Cooler's body began to transform. Red energy cracked and snapped around his body as it began to glow purple. There was another sudden loud cry from Cooler and the glow about him exploded outward hiding him completely. He became nothing more than an indistinct shadow within a dome of purple enegry. Red energy cracked and snapped around the dome as Cooler's cries continued to ring out.

Then, after a few moments, the energy dome began to shrink and finally turned back to a glowing form of a body. This lasted only a moment longer and then it, too, vanished to reveal the all new Cooler. The two sets of horns on his head were now merged into one plate-like spike on each side of his head that jutted up and back. The blue plate on his head, now red, had extended and grown into a spike of it's own growing up and back between the two plate spikes.

His face mask was now gone again and his entire face covered in his natural white armor like his brother's fourth form. The protuding shoulder 'straps' had now turned into three spikes each, one set pointing up and forward, one set straight up, and one set up and backward. The armor on his body now extended down over his abdomen as well as up over his neck and connecting to the armor on his head and a red plate now sat in the center of his chest.

The white armor around his wrists now covered his hands too, the blue plates now red as well. Small red plates were also on the tops of his hands. His tail cracked down into the ground, a bit longer and thiner than before. The armor spike that had formed on his tail in his fifth form was now bigger and had a few smaller spikes jutting out of it at random. The ankle armor covered his feet now and the blue plates here were now also red.

His muscles actually appeared to have shrunk back down to their size in his fourth form, his height as well. His purple aura danced about him, red lightning like bolts of energy around it. He opened his pure red eyes and grinned. "Well now, not as powerful as I'd expected it to be... but I knew there was a sixth form!" Cooler declared triumphantly, his voice as deep now as it had been in the previous form.

The three Kais glanced at each other. At least it was only Cooler who'd attatined the sixth and final form of the Changelings. He was the weakest of his family, either of the others... Frieza's power would be surpassed then only by Gohan and Kakkarotto. And Cold! Cold's fifth form alone would surpass all the others, even the Sai-jins! His sixth... the thought made Shin nauseous.

And it wasn't just the Changelings that were pushing the boundaries of their powers either. Kakkarotto had been right earlier, the Kais knew that. He was close to attaining his own fourth transformation, the fourth level of Super Sai-jin. Gohan was partly wrong about the fourth form. There would be no increase in energy strain with the fourth form, only a power increase of equal level to that of the third, a fifty percent increase.

Suddenly Shin paled. Something was wrong... something was very wrong. He didn't know what it was but it had just caused a sinking feeling in his heart. A feeling far worse than what he'd felt all these years watching the universe spiral out of control. This was something major, something important, something dangerous, something truly evil.

As he watched Cooler launch in to resume his spar with Pan he swallowed again. This dark feeling, this black dread that filled him. He knew now, though he knew not how the knowledge came to him, it did. The untold horror of an era long since passed. From the dark fears of his mind the cause of this weight in his heart came to him and he whispered it softly, fearfully. "Majin Buu..."

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Frieza sighed as he sat down in his chair. The trip to Earth to destroy it would be dull and boring. He knew that, space travel was always dull and boring. He had half a mind to fly to Earth under his own power, he didn't need to breathe after all. And he was faster than his fastest ship anyway. He could make the journey himself in just over twenty four hours. His ship would take almost seven days.

"Any signs of Tao or Nail yet?" Frieza hissed. He was already annoyed with the Human and Namek beyond reason, and he was getting rather pissed at Zarban and Ginyu as well since neither of them could find the two runaways.

"Not yet Master Frieza." Zarban replied calmly.

"You had better have them by the time I return or I'm throwing the both of _you_ into the holding cells! Understood!"

"Yes Master Frieza." Zarban said quickly.

Frieza shut off the scouter and tossed it aside. "Worthless morons, why do I even keep them around." he muttered. There was a slight jerk as his ship launched and began it's journey through space for the planet Earth. "I've got seven damn days until I get there..." he muttered. "Time to stew... damn it. I don't know if just blowing it up will be enough now... Maybe I should go down there and kill a few of the Humans in person first."

"Master Frieza..." a voice asked from behind.

The Changeling turned and scowled at the soldier behind him. "What is it Pandora?" he demanded agitated.

"Sorry to bother you sir." she said calmly. "But your father is on the line..."

Frieza sighed and nodded before looking toward the monitor again. A second later Cold's face filled the screen. "What is it now father?"

"Well, I've got some good news and some interesting news." Cold said. "First of all, Inferna is now a Master. I saw the Eternal Youth spell kick in just a moment ago. That's the good news by the way. The interesting news is... well, feel for yourself. Your brother's world."

Frieza arched an eyebrow curious and searched out the powers. As strong as his brother was it would be fairly easy to... _"He's transformed?! But why would he be in his fifth... wait, who's the other power?"_ "He's fighting someone..."

"Pan most likely." Cold replied. "She's the only other Master on the planet with a power level like that."

"I fail to see what's so interesting about him sparring with Pan."

Cold grinned. "It's not that he's sparring with her, it's _why_ he's sparring with her."

"Oh?"

"Cooler believes he's close to transforming yet again. A sixth form! He says he's felt it before but could never get through. I think he's using the challenge of fighting Pan as leverage to break through."

Frieza snorted. "That's all we need. He'll gloat nonstop if that happens. But really, a sixth form... isn't that getting a bit... much?"

Cold shrugged. "The Foujixians have one hundred transformations. Granted, each one only adds on another 500 to their powers, but still, six forms, in comparison, isn't that much."

"True. I suppose you ha..." Frieza's eyes widened. Cooler's power just began to spike. "I don't believe it!"

Cold nodded, he could feel it too. A moment later it stablized. "Well, not bad. It's weaker than I'd expected, his power only doubled..."

"Thank the Kais." Frieza said. "If it had followed the trend of the other forms..." he shuddered. "That kind of power would go to Cooler's head."

Cold laughed. "Indeed it would, indeed it would."

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"What the hell is this?" Pan cried as Cooler charged at her.

"The new me! Meet my sixth form!" Cooler called grinning. Before the girl had a chance to react to the charging powerhouse his fist was slammed into her stomach. She hung there on his fist for a moment, her eyes wide in pain and shock. "Impressive, isn't it? Still not on power with the likes of your father or grandfather's first forms but I could get a good work out from Master Vegeta's first form like this."

"There's... no way..." Pan managed spitting up blood as she drifted backward.

"Perhaps we should call an end to our spar Mistress Pan."

She closed her eyes and shook her head a few times to clear it. "How..."

"I could feel it in there, stirring inside of me, clawing to get free. But I just couldn't manage to unlock it." Cooler smirked. "I had the feeling that a battle against someone stronger would do it and I was right."

Pan growled. This was seriously screwing up her plans. Now that cold was stronger than her _she'd_ be the one in the Regen Tank tonight, not him. And she'd miss out on her promised day of fun. _"Oh, that does it!"_ she cried. _"First we have to come out here for some dumb meetings and completely miss Bra's sixteenth birthday party, not to mention screwing up my sparring schedule, but now he's gone and screwed up the **one thing **that was **finally** going right!"_ She glared at Cooler and growled, the sound coming from deep down in her stomach.

Cooler arched an eyebrow. He'd not heard a sound like that from a Sai-jin since... well, it hadn't turned out so well for Vegeta. If Kakkarotto hadn't been there Gohan would have turned Vegeta into dust. _"What do I know about Sai-jins? Granted, they don't like being weaker than other people but that wouldn't elicit such a reaction from her... So what else?"_ he remembered a saying his Father had first heard from Vegeta's father. _"Never get between a Sai-jin and his food, his fight, or his mate... Oh, so that's it?"_ Cooler thought grinning.

"I'm going to wipe that grin off your face Cooler!" Pan shouted surging in at at him, her aura flaring out about her. With a cry of anger and frustration she launched a fist at his head but Cooler blocked it with relative ease. She growled and began to assault him with a flurry of punches and kicks but he dodged nimbly around them or blocked them. "Damn... you... Cooler!" she shouted smashing her foot into his face to little effect.

Cooler smirked and then spun around smashing his tail into her face again. The spikes dug into her face and her blood splattered across the snow covered ground. He watched as she tried to hold herself in the air but then fell down into the snow, landing on her hands and knees, and reverting to normal. Panting and spitting up more blood she put a hand to the side of her face. _"Owww! Shit! He cracked my cheek and jaw bones! That bastard!"_ "Cooler!" she cried as best she could, wincing at the pain of moving her jaw.

"Relax Pan." Cooler said landing into the snow beside her as a few flecks of snow drifted down past his face, the clouds overhead beginning to return. "Now that I've finally reached a new level of power... I feel like basking in it for a while." he said with a grin. She looked up at him, blood running down her chin and dripping into the snow. "You should get to a Regen Tank, get those injuries fixed. Wouldn't do you any good to have a broken jaw and be sore from our spar all week, not when 17 has the whole week off."

"Wh-what?"

Cooler shrugged as the armor on his body began to crack, light seeping through the cracks as they snaked along his body. Pan turned her head away as his body suddenly flashed. When she looked back up Cooler was in his fourth form again. "Not as bulky but those damned horns and spikes are annoying." He shook his head. "Anyway, I feel like a party, and knowing my staff they'll need at least a week to come to their senses again afterwards." he lifted into the air then. "Later, Mistress Pan." he said before flying off toward the palace.

She just stared after him until she heard the faint crunch of someone landing in the snow. With a glance up, still fighting the tears of pain from her damanged face, she saw 17 bending down to help her up. "What the hell was that?" he asked, the snow now falling around them as fiercely as ever.

"Cooler..." she started, wincing from the pain.

17 put a finger over her lips to silence her. "Later, after your healed." he said. She managed a weak smile as he lifted her into the air and flew towards the palace again.

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Marron lay in 18's bed resting and staring at the ceiling. Her arrival on Saiya hadn't exactly been the kind of 'homecoming' she'd pictured after learning she'd been adopted. Then again, she'd never imagined her mother would be one of the Masters either. Granted, she'd had friends that had told she looked a lot like 18 but that had always just been a celebrity look-a-like kind of thing. Turning her head she looked at the computer screen again displaying the picture of her father and all the information the empire had on him.

_"This has been an unusal day."_ she thought. She sighed as she read part of the file again. It was odd. Her mother a Master, her Father a rebel, and all she'd ever wanted to do was important cure research. Oh, how that seemed so trivial to her now! Talking to 18 she'd learned the woman wasn't nearly as cold as she appeared during public appearances. She'd saved hundreds of people who'd passed through the palace. And her father... he was fighting to save everyone. It made her life seem rather meaningless in comparison. _"Twenty-five years and I still haven't even made the smallest of differences."_ she thought sadly.

"Hey." 18 said walking into the room again. "I have some... bad news." she said.

Marron sat up instantly and looked at her. She could see the worry and pain in her eyes. "What is it? What's up?"

"It's Frieza. He's... going to Earth, to destroy it."

"Wh-what? Why?"

"Vegeta has decided that any free Humans are dangerous. He's worried about more Hybrids."

Marron stared at her for a moment before she could manage to ask her question. "Is... is he still there?"

18 nodded. "And as far as I know, he has no way off world."

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"What do we do?" Kibito asked. "Should we step in?"

"And do what?" the Elder Kai demanded, more than asked. "We could stop Frieza, yes, kill him easily. But what's to stop one of the others from destroying the Earth anyway?"

Shin sighed. "He's right Kibito. And besides, we cannot interfere with the natural progression of the universe, not directly."

"But Majin Buu is unnatual." Kibito said.

"His existance is, yes." the Elder Kai said. "He was not born but created. Majin Buu is not the only of his kind though. Cell is the same. But they were both created by mortals and so they are a mortal problem. It is the way of things Kibito."

"As much as I do not like it the Elder Kai is correct." Shin said. "Had Buu been created by Dabura or been some sort of supernatural accident then we could step in. But a mortal made him and so the the mortals must face him. However, there is something that we can do."

"What do you have in mind?" asked Kibito.

"The Humans. They have an escape plan to get off of Earth. At the last possible moment they will summon Shenron and wish themselves to a world they have chosen. When that happens I plan to interced slightly."

"You can't." the Elder Kai said. "It's against the rules."

"Not what I have planned. The Dragonballs may have been created by a mortal but Shenron has always been, he was not created by them. Therefore I can interfere with what he does. I'll simply request he redirects Tien, Yamcha, Krillin, Enzeru, and Mitsuki to our world."

"What!?" the Elder Kai cried. "Mortals on the world of the Kais!?"

"We have no choice." Shin said standing. "I should prepare for their arrival."

"Where are you going?" Kibito asked.

"To the Grand Kai's world to recruit some warriors to aid in training our five champions."

The Elder Kai snorted. "Champions! You know as well as I do that they stand almost no chance against the Masters, even less after Majin Buu is free! And the girls are dangerous! Besides, there are other warriors down there closer to surpassing the Masters than the Humans."

"And those others are as evil as the Master and those girls may be our best hope." Shin said. "I will have Shenron bring them here and then inform them of their options. They shall make the choice themselves, this is all by the book. If it were not then it would not work."

"You're right." the Elder Kai sighed in defeat. "The natural order will prevent you from going too far on it's own."


	6. Road to Defeat

_Chapter Six - Road to Defeat_

It was beautiful day outside. The stars and five moons were shining, the birds were singing, and not a cloud in the sky. Cell smirked as he looked out upon his world. It was a good feeling, seeing such a beautiful day outside his palace, when he knew of the horrible weather outside the Changeling palaces. Turning his head he looked off into space as two powers flared up in the distance. "Cooler and Pan if I'm not mistaken." Cell said. Then he felt another power behind him and turned. "Piccolo." he said in acknowledgement, the two of them were almost never formal.

"I just got a few interesting reports in." Piccolo said. "Seems Nail's escaped Frieza, with the aid of Tao none-the-less. And now Frieza is on his way to Earth, to destroy it." Piccolo emerged from the dark confines of the palace as he spoke, the wind billowing his cape out behind him. "I'm surprised it took so long for Vegeta to have it destroyed actually."

Cell shrugged. "Probably wanted to keep the Dragonballs around in case they were ever needed. I suppose, since their signals vanished a few years ago, he's decided it's pointless, and too dangerous."

Piccolo snorted. "I don't see Hybrids as any real danger. Gohan's the only one with any real power."

"If I remember correctly Goten, Pan, Bra and Trunks are all stronger than you."

Piccolo scowled. "They are." he said gruffly. "But Goten, Bra, and Trunks could be a lot stronger than they are. Hell, Bra's never trained a day in her life and she's _still_ stronger than Goten. Him and Trunks are only about seven years younger than Gohan and neither would last two seconds against him. I'm thinking Gohan was just an abberation."

"What about Pan then?"

Piccolo shrugged. "She's Gohan's daughter. He probably just passed along the abberation to her."

"Perhaps. But Goten and Trunks were born rather powerful and with the ability to transform. I think it's simply a lack of training." Cell turned his attention back into space. "Now what is he... what the hell?"

Piccolo glanced at him and then looked off into space as well, stretching his senses. "Is that... Cooler?"

"Indeed, but... his power is beyond mine now. What happened?"

"Another transformation I suppose." Piccolo said.

Cell grunted. "One more drop in the bucket." he said. "How Vegeta could think any of us, even you, could possibly be defeated..."

"There are threats out there." Piccolo said. "But I think Vegeta's looking in the wrong direction for them. He insists on obsessing over these Humans when greater dangers roam the universe."

"You mean Slug and his men?" Cell asked.

Piccolo nodded. "Turles is fairly powerful, stronger than Pan's base power. If he transforms... Well, he'll be powerful."

"Not as strong as Vegeta or the others." Cell said. "Weaker than me even, and Cooler now too."

"Yeah, that is true." Piccolo replied walking to the balcony railing and gazing down into the valley below. When Cell had chosen this world as his, all Masters had their own planet, the natives hadn't even developed space travel yet. When Cell first came, with a small army under his command, they'd been at awe of the aliens. The natives had been fairly weaker, average power of 200, but they respected power and their ruler had a power of over four thousand. Of course, he'd challenged Cell and lost and since then the people here had practically worshiped him like a god, as well as the other Masters. This had to be the most peaceful of the Master's planets.

The Namek sighed. "And Slug is weaker than me..." he said at last. "But they are stronger than the Humans..." He placed a hand to his head and rubbed it scowling. "To much thinking these last few days." he muttered. "I'm going to go meditate for a while, if anything major comes..." he stopped and gazed down into the city below the palace and frowned. "Did you feel that?"

"Feel what?" Cell asked looking down as well.

"I don't know... something felt... off down below."

Cell frowned and looked behind him. "Go down to the city and scout it." he ordered. "If anything is wrong let me know at once." There were a series of unintelligable noises and then a short blue version of Cell sped past them and down into the city.

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Nail leaned back against the cool rock wall of the cave and drank water out of the canteen the other man had given him. After a few good gulps he looked through the darkness at where the man stood, hands clasped behind his back. The thick clouds and pouring rain put the man into dark shadows and Nail couldn't see his face. "You never did tell me your name friend." the Namek said closing the canteen and setting it down.

The man turned and looked at him for a moment before turning his gaze back out into the storm. "My name is Tao." he said at last. "You're a Namek, are you not?"

Nail nodded even though he knew the other couldn't see him. "Yes, my name is Nail."

"How did you find your way to this Kai forsaken world?" Tao asked.

"I left Namek several years ago in search of a legend, a chance to defeat the Masters so that my people would no longer have to hide in fear." he sighed and closed his eyes. "Luck was not on my side and I came across Frieza as he was coming home from a meeting with his father."

"And you have been here since." Tao said. "No doubt Frieza desired the location of your world, eternal youth is not enough for the Masters, they desire eternal life." He turned from the cave entrance and walked over to where Nail sat and seated himself on a nearby rock. "Couldn't you have used your own Dragonballs to go where ever you were heading?"

Nail looked at him for a moment not sure how much to tell him but then decided he had nothing to lose in the end. Perhaps this person had some way off of the planet, he certainly didn't. "Unfortunately no." Nail said frowning. "The world I need to get to is sealed off much like Namek itself."

Tao's face remained blank but his eyes sparked with interest. "Tell me, Nail, are you in search of the ancient's Homeworld?"

Nail looked up at him in shock. "Yes... how did you..."

"I came here in search of the location of one of the artifacts." Tao replied. "I've attained four of the seven artifacts so far."

"Four!?"

Tao nodded. "Indeed. I have the Soul Forge, Soul Wand, Soul Urn, and Soul Mirror so far. I managed to track the Soul Sphere's to Kanassa but when I got there I found they'd been taken already by Slug."

"Slug? Sounds like a Namekian name."

"It is." Tao replied. "I first met Slug over twenty years ago when he came to Earth in search of it's Dragonballs. He and Turles used them for the same wish as the Masters, myself, and my allies. Eternal Youth. Now it seems Slug is chasing down the same legend as us."

"But what use could he make of them?" Nail asked. "He could always simply merge with another Namek..."

Tao shook his head. "Slug is as black hearted as the Masters and no other Nameks travel with him. As far as I know only three of you exist outside Namek. But with all the artifacts and the knowledge needed... he could make a set of Potaras and fuse with Turles. I don't know what result if a Super Namek and a Sai-jin fuse, but the warrior would no doubt be powerful."

Nail nodded. "And you are seeking to forge a set as well?"

"Yes. Four sets in fact. When I left Earth we only had need of two sets but decided two extra pairs may come in handy." Tao stood again and moved to the cave entrance before taking a look around. "I can feel Zarban out there in the distance..." he said. "Nail, could you stand watch for a few hours. I need to sleep."

"Yes, of course." Nail said moving to where he stood and seating himself. Tao waited a moment before going back into the cave and laying down to rest.

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"Isn't there something we can do?" Marron asked. "I mean... all of those people..."

18 shook her head sadly. "No, there's nothing." she said casting her eyes down at the ground. "I don't think Earth is going to be the end of it either... I think Vegeta's going to start hunting down Humans across the entire Empire." Her eyes came back up and looked at Marron again. "I have a meeting with Vegeta in an hour, I'm going to tell him about you and see if there's... anything that can be arranged." Marron nodded.

There was a sudden knock at the door before Marron could say anything. The two women glanced at each other quickly before Marron ran over to the closet and closed the door. It would be better that she wasn't found before 18 spoke with Vegeta. The Android waited a moment and then opened her door only to have her head knocked on by Trunks. "There's no one home." she said with a smirk.

The Sai-jin prince turned his eyes back toward her and saw where he was knocking. "Oh, nope, guess not." he grinned.

18 scowled at him a moment before rolling her eyes. "So, what's up?" she asked. "You don't usually come by my room, I have to track you down all the time."

Trunks shrugged. "Got bored. That meeting was so dull and now there's no reason for me to be down in the holding cells anymore. Plus Spear hasn't been moved just yet so I don't have to deal with guard placements and shifts and all that shit. So I've got, oh, about forty-five minutes of free time..." he grinned.

"Oh really?"

Marron craned her neck to peek through the slats in the closet door to see what was going on. She could make out bits and pieces of the conversation but not enough to follow it. However, it was quite easy to follow what she saw. Trunks and 18 were moving slowly toward her bed, his lips locked firmly on hers. _"Oh... no, you've got... to be kidding me."_ Marron thought wide eyed. Moving back she slumped down into the corner for the next forty-five mintues holding her hands over her ears to drown out the sound.

Finally the room went quiet. She waited where she was in silence, just in case Trunks hadn't left yet. And then the door swung open and 18 stuck her head in. "Hey... um, sorry about that..." she said softly.

"I-it's okay." Marron said standing and stepping out of the closet again. As she did she noticed that 18 hadn't bothered to dress yet but as the woman grabbed the purple and black armor off the hanger in the closet remembered her meeting with Vegeta. "Um, do you... do you think I'll be okay?" she asked as 18 pulled on the white gloves that completed the outfit. "I mean... Master Vegeta's..."

"Don't worry too much." 18 said. "You're my daughter, I don't really expect too much of a problem with it." The other girl nodded, still not entirely convinced. "Anyway, I need to get going, I don't want to be late. I'll be back as quickly as possible." With that she turned and went out the door.

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Trunks was grinning the whole way down to the holding cells. _"And here I'd thought today was going to be dull when I'd gotten up."_ he thought as his grin widened. _"Got to kill someone this morning, had some fun with 18, and now... Bald and four eyes isn't exactly my thing, but damn she's got a body..."_ He rounded the corner and saw the guards emerging from Spear's cell with the girl behind them chained to prevent escape. Not that it was needed, her power was only 11, beyond small.

"Oh, Master Trunks." One of the guards said bowing. "I was told to expect you."

"Yes, well, I have to make sure our little friend is okay. She's saved us a lot of work with the information she gave us." he winked at her and she turned her eyes toward the ground. "Come on, I'll lead you up to her room. And you can remove those chains, she's a guest now, not a prisoner."

The walk through the halls was nothing but boring, but Trunks didn't notice. His mind was running on auto-pilot as it worked over-time on the ideas. He was so deep in thought he didn't even notice Goten until the other slapped him across the back of his head. "Hey, what was that for?" Trunks asked rubbing his head.

"To get your attention Mr. Lala-Land." Goten said rolling his eyes. "I just thought I'd let you know, Gohan and my father are on their way home."

"Yeah, so?"

"So?" Goten asked arching an eyebrow. "That means Gohan will be talking to Videl soon. You do remember what he nearly did to your father, don't you?"

"Oh relax Goten, it was just a kiss."

Goten grinned and stepped in front of the prince walking backwards as they moved down the hall. "Sure thing Trunks, but I heard her screaming at you clear across the planet. And she did put you in a Regen Tank for a solid week."

"That's only because I hadn't transformed." Trunks huffed. "Unlike you I'm stronger than her."

Goten shruged. "Someone's got to be the weakest Sai-jin." he said, his eyes roaming back to the girl. "Say... isn't she?"

"Yeah. We're taking her to her new room." Trunks replied. He glanced over at the other and noticed his eyes moving up and down. Grinning he elbowed him. "Care to help me out?" he asked.

"Huh? Oh... sure!" Goten said falling into line again. The rest of the trip was made in silence. When they reached the room that had been set up for Spear, Trunks posted two guards outside, one patrolling the hall in front, and one patrolling each of the two connecting halls as well. Then he and Goten lead her inside.

The room wasn't exactly fancy. Just a simple double bed, as per Trunks's request, a small dresser, desk, TV, and Computer. The only light came from an overhead hanging lamp as there were no windows. "Well, it's not much, but it's home for the next few weeks at least." Trunks said.

"Yes... thank-you again." Spear said after a moment. She fidgeted a bit seemingly nervous about something, her eyes constantly moving from Goten to Trunks and back again. Then, much to both of their shock, she moved in and kissed them. Not just quick kisses but long ones each. And then she turned from them and dropped into her bed. "You will fall eventually." she said after a moment.

"Wh-what?" Goten asked, finally coming out of his shock.

"You, your families, the other Masters... eventually you will all be dead. I wont get to see that day though... I probably wont even see the sunset tomorrow now. But if it makes the universe safer than it is worth my death."

Trunks was having trouble figuring out what she was talking about. At first she seemed to be talking about the Masters dying but now she seemed to be talking about what she'd done. "Don't worry so much." Trunks said after a moment. "The guards wont let..."

Spear laughed. "You... you're leading the way to your own doom and you don't even see it." She sat up, her four green eyes training onto the two Hyrbids. "Everyone makes a mistake now and then. Everyone eventually gets caught. And everyone eventually dies. Including you two."

Goten laughed. "Us? Die? Heh, that's a good one. And here I'd thought you weren't like the others."

Spear grinned. "Oh, but I'm not. I'm better than them..."

"I can imagine." Trunks interrupted with a grin, a glistening sheen of sweat now starting to soak through his body suit.

Spear laughed. "Oh, I bet I'm better that way too, but that's not what I meant. What I meant is, unlike the others who've tried to kill you, I didn't fail."

Goten looked at her like she was crazy. "What are talking about? Last I checked I was still very much alive. And you don't have nearly enough power to even scratch me let alone kill me."

"What do you think the next world is like?" she asked licking her lips. "Well, anything is better than this world." She looked at them for a moment, Goten was sweating now too. "Tell me, have either of you ever heard of the Kiss of Death?"

"The what?" Trunks asked, his head was starting to hurt.

"Kiss of Death." she said shrugging. "There's this flower on my homeworld, highly poisnous. For centuries assassins would put the nectar from it on their lips, kiss their victims, and the person would be dead within days. And if they were ever caught they'd lick their own lips clean of the nectar, suicide. Not exactly the way I pictured I would die... Not exactly the most pleasnt way either I've been told. Though I'd imagine it's better than meeting either of your fathers after they hear about this." She reached a hand up and brushed some sweat off her brow and then lay back in the bed and closed her eyes.

Trunks was about to say something but all that came out was a painful grunt. His hand reached up and gripped the armor over his heart as he fell down to one knee. Spear spoke again as she heard him fall. "It's fairly fast acting stuff, but it takes a good day or so to kill. It'll do the two of you good, to be the ones to suffer for once."

She could hear Trunks gasping at the pain that was now tearing through his heart, head, and body. Then, a second later, Goten's pained cries and gasps joined in. She could feel the headache coming on now too and closed her eyes again as the pressure built in her chest. _"If only I knew how to control my KI. Then I could do this less painfully... No matter. Mom, dad, Axe, I'll be with you soon."_

"Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!" Trunks screamed falling completely to the floor, his left leg spasming as one hand gripped his head and the other his chest. Within seconds the guards were in the room to see what was wrong.

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18 walked into the Throne Room a few moments early and approached Vegeta's throne. As she reached it she knelt before him and Bulma. "You can stand 18." Vegeta said. "What is it you wished to speak to me about?"

18 was quiet for a moment as she tried to order her thoughts and phrase everything the right way. "Years ago... shortly after I was activated... I let my emotions rule my judgement." she began. "I wont go into detail, that's not important, what is important is that I had a daughter. Have a daughter. I gave her up all those years ago because I was worried that... that Gero would use her in one of his experiments. But I've found her again..."

"Yes, so? What's the issue?"

"Well... she's Human, obviously." 18 began. "And her father... is Krillin."

The room went silent for a long moment as the three of them just looked at each other. After a moment it was Bulma who spoke. "This daugther of yours, is she a fighter?"

18 shook her head. "No. She's more of a scientist than anything. I found her because she applied to Capsule Corp..."

Bulma nodded. "I don't really see a problem... Vegeta..."

"I'm thinking woman!" he said gruffly. The room fell into complete silence again for several long moments. Vegeta was just about to say something when a guard burst in through the front door running at full tilt.

"Master Vegeta! Master Vegeta!" he cried. "It's Goten and Trunks, something's wrong!"

"What?!" he demanded.

"Something's wrong with them, and that Spear woman. They're all being taken to the Regen Tanks now."

Vegeta stood and started out of the room. "We can finish this later." he said over his shoulder before vanishing through the door. It only took him a few moments to reach the Regen Tanks and by then the two Hybrids and the Eawpon had been placed inside. The techs in the room were highly agitated as they ran about adjusting this and that.

"It's not working!" one of them called.

"Condition still unstable... cellular degeneration continuing!"

"Do a tox and viral scan of the tanks, stat!"

"Viral scan is negative, beginning tox scan now."

"Increase the DNA levels in the solution."

"Tox is positive! They've been poisoned!"

"What is it? Is their an antidote?"

"Checking.... shit! It's the Kiss of Death, there's no antidote for that!"

"Kiss of Death? The Eawpon woman must have brought it with her..."

Vegeta growled as he looked around the room. "Would someone tell me what the hell is going on!" he shouted.

The room went quiet for a moment before one tech swallowed and explained the situation. "Somehow the poison known as Kiss of Death, it's from a flower found on the Eawpon homeworld... well, somehow it was introduced into the systems of these three." he explained slowly, nervously. "It's highly potent and... well... there's no antidote. All we can do is prolong their suffering two, three days at the most. But by the end of the week they will be dead."

Vegeta growled again as he looked at the two of them. _"Poison! How the hell would anyone get that in here? Everyone is screened, even the girl was screened for any traces of infection or poison!"_ "You will do everything you can to save them, is that understood?" Vegeta said slowly.

"Y-yes sir."

"Good." And with that he turned and began his way back to his thrown room. _"Time for those ingrates at Capsule Corp. to do something useful for once."_

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Shin stood, his arms behind his back, beside the Grand Kai. As luck would have it he'd come looking for warriors to train the Earthlings during one of the Grand Kai's tournaments. At the moment Olibu and Pikkon were going at it in the ring. "So these two are still the strongest then?" Shin asked.

"Yes. Pikkon is nearing your power now actually." the Grand Kai said. "And Olibu... well, just watch."

"Any others you would suggest for this endevor?"

"Hmmmm." the Grand Kai rubbed his chin in thought as he watched the continuing match. "Well, North Kai is a bit of an odd one but you should have him kick off the training. It's not exactly normal but it comes in quite handy, so I've heard. And I have a pair of Metamorians... they have a few skills that could aid the Humans greatly." The Grand Kai paused as Pikkon removed his weighted clothing. "Ah, here we go... I think you'll find this interesting."

Shin turned his eyes back to the battle as Pikkon's clothing landed outside the ring. Olibu smirked and clenched his hands into fists letting out a cry as his aura flared to life around him. His arms, chest, and legs began to bulge and he began to grow taller. To the naked eye it seemed like the already bulky Olibu was merely powering up even further. However, both the Grand Kai and Supreme Kai knew differently. "So he's done it at last." Shin said. "Olibu managed to transform."

"First Human in more than ten thousand years." Grand Kai said as the two warriors went at it again. "He's still nowhere near the power of Pikkon though."

"No, he is not." Shin said. "But he is more powerful than a few of the Super Sai-jins..."


	7. Trapped in an Icy Grave

_Chapter Seven - Trapped in an Icy Grave_

The wind blew icy and cold biting through the thick clothes of the large gathering of people. The howl of the wind mixed with the roar of motors, the rumble of jackhammers, and the screams of the drills, and the shouts of dozens of people making it hard to hear someone more than four feet away. The people were gathered in an area about a hundred yards in diameter and surrounded by dozens of make-shift trailers.

One of the men in a purple, orange, and white coat moved along the thick ice fighting against the wind and snow. The storm had picked up again and the snow was starting down again. Holding an arm up to shield his eyes he peered down into the ice cave that his people had dug out. They were about a hundred and ninety feet down into the ice now, still a good three hundred feet above the surface of the planet. Then they'd need to go down another good two or three hundred feet to get to the Xerudia deposits they were after.

If reports were right though this would be well worth the work. According to the probes that flew over the frozen wasteland that was Geozan 7 there was about forty nine tons of Xerudia under the ice at this location and another one hundred and nine tons scattered across the planet in hundreds of other deposits. Geozan 7 was a Xerudia gold mine, there was more of the rare mineral on this world alone then in any other entire solar system they'd been too.

His orange eyes scanned the people moving up and down the tunnel as they continued to work. Most of the workers here were Human, most Capsule Corp. were employees for that matter. But Xeno wasn't and his normally blue skin was turning purple from the cold. He was about to head back to his trailer for a cup of coffee when a voiced called up to him from below. "Xeno, Xeno! You're not going to believe this!"

He looked down into the tunnel and saw one of the Humans calling up to him. Rubbing his hands together to restore their warmth he started his way down the tunnel. It took him a good three minutes to reach the other man who then lead him the rest of the way down. "What's going on?" Xeno asked noting the man's name tag read I. C. Everfrost.

"We found something... big." Everfrost said. "You have to see it to believe it."

Xeno glanced at him but said nothing until they'd reached the bottom of the tunnel. The workers were all standing around now, their tools temporarily discarded as they gazed at their find. "What the hell..." Xeno breathed looking through the ice. This deep into it the ice was pretty easy to see through with enough light and there, sitting another fifty feet or so away, was a round white object. It was undoubtedly a space pod. The red window was facing away from them so they couldn't see inside.

"We need to get that thing free, see if there was somone inside... how old is the ice here?" Xeno asked looking over at Everfrost.

"About twenty to thirty years I'd say." the Human replied. "It's hard to tell because of the flash freezing that's occured at several times across the planet. It's possible this person was landing here and got caught in a flash freeze after a Wons Flash from the system star. It's the most active we've ever encountered."

Xeno nodded. "Then whoever is trapped inside there could still be alive and preserved." he said. "But what would a space pod be doing out here? And how would it have gotten here twenty or thirty years ago?"

Everfrost shook his head. "I'm a geology expert, not a history buff." he said. "Though I suppose Capsule Corp. would have records on the matter. And it's possible the pod is still emiting a transponder signal. The new pods use a new frequency, this would be on the old frequency and no one would be scanning it."

"Right, right." Xeno said nodding. He turned to another nearby worker. "Head up to my trailer and get me my scouter, I'm going to see what I can get for a power reading and a transponder signal." The man nodded and took off up the tunnel. Xeno turned back to Everfrost. "I want you to head back to the ship and get me a relay set-up so I can check the Empire's records."

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17 set down on the edge of the palace grounds and saw the medics running toward him already. "Cooler must have sent for them..." he said softly before looking down at Pan in his arms. "Passed out have we?" he asked her unconcious form. "Cooler must have really worked you over, or that pain threshold of yours has dropped off since you started sparring with me and Bra more than your father."

The medics reached him a moment later, a hovering bed between the four of them. 17 laid Pan down onto it carefully. As he'd flown her in he'd found that more than her cheek bone and jaw were cracked. One of her lower ribs had been broken as well and he wanted to make sure it didn't end up poking into something important. And he wanted to cause her as little pain as possible.

Instead of letting the Medics push her to the Regen Bay he lifted a few inches off the ground and pushed her himself as he flew. He was going just fast enough to get to the Regen Bay quickly but slow enough that the sharp turns wouldn't jostle Pan to much. It only took a few moments to reach the tanks and he pulled to a stop and lifted her up gently. As he moved over to an empty tank her eyes opened slowly again.

"Go back to sleep hun." 17 said placing her into the tank and putting the oxygen mask over her face. "You need to rest and heal up."

She managed to smile weakly before she passed out again. 17 closed the tank and activated the system filling it with the healing fluids. He stood watching her as it filled, his hand pressed lightly to the glass. _"Never thought I'd be looking in at you in one of these things." _he thought. _"Not even Gohan ever worked you over this badly."_ With a sigh he glanced at the estimated time to recover. "Well, guess I've got six hours of peace at least." he said with a grin. Maybe I'll be able to get a little work done. I'll be back when the time's up Pan..."

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Cell Jr. landed on the edge of town and glanced around. Nothing seemed out of place in the general area so he moved into the city slowly. He kept his power supressed as low as he could, the natives had learned to sense energy and the town security had scouters. He didn't want them to find him, or for whatever he may be looking for to know he was there. Nearing the edge of the alley he was in he pressed up against one of the walls and peeked around the corner. Nothing but torchlit dirt streets. A glance the other way showed the same thing.

Narrowing his eyes Cell Jr. spread out his senses to feel for anything out of place. There were several people in the building behind him, a glance back showed that it was a hotel, nothing odd about multiple people there. Suddenly his eyes narrowed a bit further. Now he could feel something that was definitely out of place in the city. It was a small power, he estimated it around 4 or 5 at the most. There was nothing on the planet with a power in that range.

He kept his senses locked on this other power that was also moving through the city slowly. Whatever the source of the KI was it was moving further into the city, toward Cell Jr. Reaching another corner he ducked into the shadows and knelt down behind a small crate. Peeking around the corner it watched for whatever it was that was producing this small power. His best guess was someone trying to hide by supressing their power. Most likely Piccolo had sensed a small lapse in the person's KI suppression skills.

As the owner of the KI came into view Cell Jr.'s eyes widened in shock. In a flash of gold he launched up into the air and started back toward the palace no longer caring if he was seen by this person. It's eyes widdened again as a hand suddenly grabbed his foot. "Ikiki kiyo uki ooka!" he cried turning to fire an attack from his fingers. However he never got the chance, a wave of energy surged up and incinerated him before he saw it coming.

Up on the palace balcony both Piccolo and Cell watched the sudden flash of gold and then the wave of red energy. "What the hell?!" Cell cried. "I barely had the chance to notice that power before it vanished again..."

"Looks like our visitor wants to play hide and seek." Piccolo said.

"Did you recognize the KI?"

"No, it came and went too quickly. But I'll give you three guesses as to who it probably is that has enough power to kill one of your little Cells."

"Slug."

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Vegeta reached his throne room a bit slower than he'd expected, but he was still there in twenty minutes time. Twice as long as normal... He shook his head to get rid of the thoughts that were clogging it. He'd see to it that his son lived or... not even Kakkarotto would be able to hold him back from wiping out the the entire Eawpon homeworld. And that would just be for starters. He grabbed the scouter sitting beside his throne as he sat and put it on thumbing it quickly.

He tried calling 18 first, he was used to her handling most matters, but he couldn't seem to get through to her. Finally he realized she must have gone down to see Trunks, transmissions were blocked from the Regen Bays beacause they interfered with the equipment. With a grunt he thumbed the scouter again and the somewhat Mechanical Voice of 16 came over the line. "What is it Master Vegeta?"

"I want you to head to the Capsule Corp. building here on Saiya and contact their home headquarters. Tell them I want an antidote for the Kiss of Death poison in three days." Vegeta paused for a moment. "Tell them to drop _everything_ else and get me that antidote, they wont like the alternatives."

"Understood."

Vegeta gripped the scouter and yanked it off crushing it in his anger. "Blast it!" he cried pitching it across the room. He sat there a moment longer before getting up again and heading to his chambers. He reached his room in a matter of moments and activated the terminal there and sent out a transmission to Kakkarotto's ship.

A moment later Kakkarotto's grinning face appeared on screen. "Hey, Veggie!" Kakkarotto called at him over his food.

_"Just my luck, I had to catch him in a good mood, I **hate** that name." _"Kakkarotto, shut up and stop stuffing your face for ten seconds." Vegeta growled.

"Oh... what's wrong Vegeta?" Gohan asked walking on screen.

"Yeah, what's up Vegeta?" Kakkarotto asked dropping the food back onto his plate.

"It's Trunks and Goten." Vegeta said after relaxing his nerves a bit. "They've been poisoned."

"What?" Gohan asked, eyes going wide. "How?"

"The damn Eawpon woman!" Vegeta roared, his anger boiling again. "She poisioned herself too. The three of them are in the Regen Tanks now but it's only delaying the workings of the poison. They'll be dead in days unless we get an antidote for the poison. There isn't one yet but I've put all of Capsule Corp onto it." The Sai-jin royal noted the darkening eyes of both the other Sai-jins. "We _will_ get an antidote, and then that... bitch will pay."

Both the other Sai-jins nodded but it was Gohan that spoke up. "I think it's also time to talk to Goten and Trunks. It's their own stupidity that allowed this I'd bet. I can imagine why those two would have been close enough to her to get poisoned in the first place."

Vegeta frowned. "You do have a point there..." He nodded. "I'll definately have a 'talk' with Trunks once this is over. How long until you get here?"

"We're still a full day from Planet Cold, shouldn't be more than three days until we're back." Kakkarotto said. "Anything else of intrest happen while we were out?"

Vegeta sat in thought for a moment and then nodded. "Yes, actually. Nail escaped from Frieza earlier today with the help of Tao. I've decided that the Humans are too dangerous and troublesome to keep around any longer. Frieza is on his way to Earth now to destroy the planet."

"What about the other Humans?" Gohan asked. "There's a good nine or ten million of them on other planets."

Vegeta sighed. "I know. I'm still not certain about them just yet... I may have 16 and 19 go out with a small army and hunt them all down, kill them all off... I have another problem to deal with related to this Human mess too."

"Oh?" Kakkarotto asked.

"It turns out that 18 has a daughter. I don't know all the details but she's the daughter of Krillin. She's not a fighter but... I don't like that parentage."

"Yeah... I can understand that." Gohan said. "That could be a problem later. 18's not going to like it much but I think it would be best just to cut out the threat now and kill her."

Kakkarotto nodded. "Gohan's right. We don't know what effect the cyberntic implants she has may have on children. She may not be a fighter but what about any future kids of her own?"

Vegeta nodded. "That's what I was thinking. I just needed to bounce it off of you two first. I'll handle it myself after this poison business has been dealt with. I'll talk to you when you get back."

"Right. Later Vegeta." Gohan said as the screen went blank.

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18 had stood and stared after Vegeta's retreating form in shocked silence. _"There's something wrong with Trunks? But... I was just... he was fine twenty minutes ago... How..."_ She wanted to follow after the Sai-jin to the Regen Tanks but her legs wouldn't move.

"18, are you okay?" Bulma's voice, soft and gentle, sounded only a few inches from her ear as the woman's hand rested on her shoulder.

"I... I don't..."

"Come, we'll go together." she said after a moment. 18 barely managed a nod as Bulma led the way out of the room and through the halls to the Regen Tanks.

"He was fine when he left my room... he seemed to be in perfect shape... I... how could something suddenly be wrong with him?" 18 wondered. Suddenly she realized the number of people in the hall and her face went blank quickly. Bulma took notice, she always did, but said nothing. The two travled on in silence until they reached the tank room. As they reached the room Vegeta was on his way out and breezed past them without even noticing they were there.

18 walked over to the tanks and looked in at Trunks. His face was distorted in pain and she could see his muscles spasming. Placing her hand on the glass she glanced over at the other two and saw them in the same condition. "What... happened?" she asked looking over to a tech as Bulma came to a stop beside her.

"As we just explained to Master Vegeta they were infected by a poison. The Kiss of Death. We have no antidote on record but we are trying what we can to save them." the tech replied without looking up from his controls. The room had calmed considerably as the tanks began to slow the work of the poison.

"Tell me the truth." Bulma said slowly, softly. "Will he make it?"

The tech remained silent for a moment as he looked up. "I... do not know." he said. "As things look now... the most we can do is keep them alive for another three or four days. The poison works faster than the tanks do, but even if that was not the case, removing them from the tanks would allow the poison to work at full strength again..."

"So if they come out they'll die?" 18 asked.

The tech sighed. "Within a matter of hours I'd say." He noticed the pain on Bulma's face and in 18's eyes. "Master Vegeta seemed to have something in mind however." he said. "He ordered us to do what we could, to be expected yes, but he had that look in his eyes."

Bulma nodded. She knew what he meant. Whenever Vegeta thought he had a plan his eyes always seemed to fill with a fire. She'd seen that look a number of times over the years. "Bra's going to want to know..." she said after a moment.

"I'll go find her." 18 offered.

"No." Bulma said. "I'll find her. I believe you have someone waiting for you..."

18 turned and looked at Bulma, the surprise evident in her eyes. "How..."

"I'm a mother too 18." she said. "I know what I would have done in your position." She started past the blonde woman but then stopped and looked over to her. "And for the sake of the Empire I hope Vegeta sees things our way. Because if he doesn't... well, like I said, I know what I would do." and with that she walked off.

18 stared after her for a moment. _"Sake of the Empire? What she would do?" _18 wondered. But as she stood there wishing she had someone to kill for what was happening to Trunks she knew what Bulma had meant. _"For all of our sakes Bulma, I do too."_

She turned her eyes back to Trunks for a few moments before leaving. She couldn't stand there watching him suffer any longer. By the time she'd reached her room again her eyes burned from the tears that threatened to ruin the reputation she'd created for herself. But as the door clicked shut behind her she gave in and broke down into tears.

"18?" Marron asked walking over to her. This wasn't the woman she'd seen on television so many times. This wasn't even the woman she'd been talking to all day. She was barely staying on her feet and the cold shell she showed to the world was shattered completely. Standing there looking at the tears rolling down her cheeks was almost too much for her. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"T-Trunks..." 18 managed. "He... he's dying."

"What? But he was fine a half-hour ago..."

18 nodded. "I know... but... a poison... Kiss of Death..."

"Kiss of Death!" Marron gasped in horror. "By the Kais... who? How?"

"I don't know..." 18 choked, she was getting control of her emotions again. "P-probably that Spear woman... she could have gotten close enough to him and Trunks..." 18 walked over to her bed in a daze and fell onto it closing her eyes. She didn't actually need to sleep but she felt worn and tired. By the time her head hit the pillow she was out.

Marron stood there watching her for a moment before moving over to her computer and sitting down. _"I can't believe I'm going to try and keep one of the Masters alive, let alone the son of the man that ordered my world to be destroyed... and my father killed. But I have to help 18, if he dies..."_ She shook her head as her fingers flew over the keyboard and she called up all the information on the Kiss of Death flower.

She read over all the general information on it that she could find and then went digging further. She made use of the high clearance level of 18's computer and began digging through Capsule Corp.'s research files on the plant. They were looking into both an antidote and a way to make use of the plant in some fashion. Marron decided she'd go through both sets of files, look for anything the C.C. people had missed. She knew for a fact that the two teams working on the plant wouldn't be talking to each other about what they knew, seperate projects meant seperate information.

"Hmm... what's this?" she asked softly after a few mintues of work. She scrolled through the file reading over what the one research team had found. A specific compound, normally toxic as well, would break down the poison in the Kiss of Death nectar. Reading through the file she frowned. The resulting breakdown would also produce excess gas, the actual result the researchers had been looking for, but deadly inside a person.

But this was knowledge and knowledge was useful. She took this new knowledge and applied it to the problem. She had a solution to the poison but it created a new problem. _"Now, how do you get rid of the gas problem?"_ she wondered. _"Let's see, 2 parts oxygen, 5 parts hydrogen, 2 parts helium... helium? Hmmm... maybe a VoX2 solution?"_ Quickly she opened up one of C.C.'s simulators and applied the problem. She loaded in the digitial dummies, inserted the KoD poison, and then ran the GeoFf solution the one team had created.

The result was near instant. The poison began to break down and convert into the gas. It only took a matter of seconds before the digital body expanded and exploded. "Oops, that's faster than I'd expected... Alright, we'll mix the GeoFf and VoX2 solutions then." she said applying the mixture. "Name it? Guess no one's mixed these before... Hmm, well, traditional naming conventions haven't applied in years... I'll just call it KoDMA." she said typing it in.

That finished she then ran the test again. Reseting the dummy she infected it with the Kiss of Death poison and then injected the new KoDMA solution. Instantly the poison began to break down into gas but the new addition of the VoX2 solution via the KoDMA mix began to mix with the helium and produce a new compound. It was used for terra forming normally and created inside a machine and carefull regulated. Here she was hoping that since the amount of gas was small at any given moment there wouldn't be a problem.

The new compound began to merge the Oxygen with free Hydrogen atoms creating water. The water then was absorbed into the system and the blood carried the terraforming compound out of the body as waste. With a smile she leaned back in her chair and grinned. "The right hand ignores the left hand and both drop the cup of coffee." she said remembering one of her old professor's favorite lines. "They've had the antidote for nearly three years and didn't have a clue." She cast a glance at the clock and nearly jumped. "That took me six hours?!" she cried.

At the sudden sound 18 stirred and woke up again. She wasn't a very deep sleeper since she didn't actually need the rest. "What is it?" she asked rubbing her eyes and sitting up. "Is something wrong Marron?"

"No... something's right." Marron said grinning.

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Tao awoke instantly, he always did. Sitting up he worked out the kinks in his cold and stiff arms. He wasn't sure how long he'd actually slept, it was hard to track the time when you were unconcious, but the storm outside had let up a little. Not that it would end anytime soon, the rainy season would go on for another month or so. As he stood, the Namek glanced back at him only partially opening an eye to gaze at him with. "Done resting?"

"Yes." Tao said simply as he walked forward. "I've gotten all the sleep I'll need for the day. Where is Zarban now?"

"He's moved off to the east a few dozen miles. Dodarla is up and about again and off to the south about four miles. The problem is with the person about six hundred yards behind us moving west, towards us." Nail replied. "I know that power level rather well, it's Ginyu."

Tao frowned as he expanded his senses and noted that Nail was right. "Ginyu shouldn't be too major of a problem." he said. "His power is lower than mine..."

"He's supressing it." Nail said. "He's twice that strong actually. At least, that's the strongest I've ever felt him."

Tao nodded. "Figures." He turned and moved into the back of the cave motioning for Nail to follow. The two sat down on a pair of rocks and waited in silence as Ginyu's power moved overhead. He was going at a slow pace, about a mile an hour, and it took a while for him to pass by. Both people within the cave focused on keeping their powers down as low as possible for the next hour as they remained still and silent.

"We should be good now." Tao said standing. "Dodarla's moved a little over a mile further from us though Zarban has gotten closer again. It's not important, the three of them should be easy to avoid if we head north. We'll have to cross the mountains but I know a fairly managable trail and the location of a cave that cuts completely through the mountain. It shouldn't take more than a day's walk to reach the otherside."

"Is your ship over there?" Nail asked standing.

"It is. It's a few hours further from the cave but I'd suggest we make camp at the opposite end of the cave though. My supplies are low on the ship, it would be better to use the river that flows through the cave as our drinking water and I can catch a few of the fish in it for myself."

"Alright then, let's get moving." Nail said walking toward the exit. Tao waited for a moment before following after him, hands clasped behind his back.

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Xeno had watched as the workers had begun work on cutting the pod out of the ice while he waited on his scouter and computer. Using tools was slower than letting the stronger workers use their KI but there was less chance of the tunnel caving in this way. It had only taken the one worker about twenty mintues to get his scouter and come back at which point Xeno checked the pod.

He'd picked up a faint power reading of only 1 from inside the pod and had picked up the transponder signal after tinkering with the scouter for a bit. The pod Registration Number flashed on the scouter, AFZ-0187-54A2. Not that it had meant a damned thing to Xeno or any of the others either. Xeno knew that it wouldn't help them any until he could cross reference it with the Empire's records.

It had taken almost six hours for Everfrost to return with the computer and the relay connection. Of course, the Capsule Corp. ship that had brought them to Geozan 7 was a few hours drive away on one of the few parts of the planet that was actual ground and not ice. Not wanting to leave the tunnel incase anything of interest occured Xeno had a pair of thin heated gloves brought to him and a crate to sit down on and he set to work.

"Ah, there, I'm in the registry now. Let's see... Pod Registration Number AFZ-0187-54A2..." he said as he typed. "Hmm... now this is interesting... it's restricted..." He looked up and glanced over around the small collection of individuals with him. Spotting the women he was looking for he smiled. "Eve, come here." he called out.

The woman lowered her chisel and looked back at him with her blue eyes. Her flame red hair seemed out of place in the midst of all the ice but her eyes matched its pale blue color. She could have passed herself off as Human if it wasn't for the deep purple skin color. Dropping her tools to the ground she walked over to Xeno. "What is it?"

"I need you to get me access to the registry files. You're the best hacker we've got."

"I don't know..." she said. "I almost got fired for..."

"Look, I'll take the heat if there's any problems, I'm the one telling you to do this after all. Besides, we need to know who or what's in that ship and who we should contact about having found the thing."

She pursed her lips for a moment and then sighed. "Alright, move aside." she said taking over the crate. Unlike the other races on the project on Geozan 7 Eve's race, the Nezorfs, were perfectly used to freezing cold tempratures. In fact, to her, the current climate was a little warm, hence the shorts and t-shirt while everyone else was bundled up. Xeno wished she hadn't been the only Nezorf assigned to the project, it would have sped it along if he didn't have to worry about people getting frostbite or some such.

Eve spent the first few moments staring at the screen and aquainting herself with the system. Then she set to work. Xeno stood watching over her shoulder but she was soon moving through screens so quickly he barely even noticed they were changing. It took her a good ten mintues before she stopped, a grin on her face. "Done. I'm in." she said simply. She input the Registration Number for the pod again. This time a new screen full of information popped up.

"So, who's is it and why was it restricted?" Xeno asked.

"Let's see..." Eve said as the working paused. The work crew, already excited by the odd find, was intrigued as to what exactly they had found. "It's listed as belonging to a Sai-jin by the name of... this can't be right..."

"What, what is it?" Someone called over.

"According to the file this pod belongs to Bardock..."

"Bardock!?" Xeno asked in shock. "You mean Kakkarotto's father Bardock, that Bardock?!"

"Um..." She moved through a few more screens and then an image came up. "Yeah, that's him all right... what the hell is going on..." she muttered.

"Can you figure out what it was doing out here?" Xeno asked.

"Let me see." Eve replied checking the file. "According to the records the pod was destroyed the day of Bardock's death, fifty three years ago."

Everyone looked at each other in silence. This was definitely something important. Xeno grabbed the computer and hiked his way back out of the tunnel, the others following after him. As he emerged back into the sun light, the storm once more gone, he patched his scouter into the computer and then into the space communications network. Holding the laptop with one hand he typed in the level 2 priority code.

"This is Dr. Gero." A voice said through the scouter's ear piece. "Name, position, and problem." he ordered.

"I'm Xeno Biphoa, Head of the Geozan 7 project. Um... sir... we've found something that I think Master Vegeta and Master Kakkarotto may be interested in..."

"And what would that be? And what makes it such a prioity?" Gero demanded, an edge to his voice now.

"Er.. well... We found a space pod about 200 feet down into the ice here and I... well... I got a faint energy reading from inside... and... the pod... it's... well, it's registered to Bardock."


	8. Life or Death

_Chapter Eight - Life or Death_

Bra had been sitting in the Regen Bay for the past six hours. The others were worried too, of course, but she felt it worst of them all. Unlike all the others, she had two people she loved on the line here. Her brother and her mate. Every half-hour or so she'd move from sitting in front of Trunks to sitting in front of Goten and Bulma had taken up residence in a chair in the corner. Bra suddenly looked up and out the door as her Father entered the room.

"Any word?" Bulma asked.

"The guys at Capsule Corp say they just finished shifting their resources over to the problem and are working on an anitdote now." Vegeta said. "But 18 contacted me a moment later saying she may have had something and asking me to meet her here."

Bulma and Bra glanced at each other, both wondering what the Android woman might have possibly had. They waited in silence a moment longer and then heard footfalls in the hall. A second later 18 stepped into the room with a young woman behind her who looked very nervous. "Master Vegeta, Mistress Bra, Lady Bulma." 18 said nodding to them each. "I'd like to introduce my daughter, Marron." she motioned back to her.

Vegeta stiffened a bit. He'd had that feeling when he saw the woman. But he hadn't thought she was on Saiya. Well, it would make finding her later easier. "What is it 18?" he asked.

"Marron..."

The young woman nodded and took a deep breath as she moved in front of 18. "Sir... I heard about your son and Master Goten earlier and... I wanted to try and help. I used 18's computer to do some research on the Poison and then access Capsule Corp.'s records and systems. It took me a while but... I think I figured out an antidote..."

"You're kidding!?" Bra cried jumping up, the worry on her face vanishing.

"I think it will work." Marron said glancing over to her. "The simulations I ran worked so... I don't see any problems... the computers factor in everything..."

"How did you get something so fast?" Bulma asked. "Capsule Corp. just started it's own work..."

"They already had the answer, they just didn't know." Marron replied. "They had it for almost three years without a clue. Two different research groups were working on the Kiss of Death plant. One for an antidote and one for a power source. If they would have compared notes the antidote team would have been done years ago. I just did it for them."

Vegeta frowned. "Can we produce the antidote here?" he asked.

"We can." came a new voice. Everyone turned to see Dr. Gero standing in the doorway. "18 contacted me first asking if I could produce the compound in my lab. It only took about ten mintues." he held up a vial and showed them the swirling neon pink fluid. "This is only enough for one person, if it works I can make more. However, there is a minor risk involved. If the person's system doesn't flush the waste created by the antidote fast enough they could still die. But at least this way there is a fighting chance."

"The Eawpon woman, try it on her first." Vegeta ordered. "If it kills her, well, no harm done. If it works..." Gero nodded and moved over to the Regen Tank. He took the vial and poured the contents into a nearby syringe and then nodded to a tech to drain the tank. A moment later it was open and Gero was injecting the fluid into her arm. "How long will this take?" Vegeta asked.

"A matter of moments for the effect to start, we wont know the full results for about an hour though."

They all watched as a few small bubbles formed under her skin across her body but soon faded. This lasted for about thirty seconds and then she seemed perfectly fine. "Well, she's past the first stage." Marron said. "She didn't explode, that's a good sign."

Gero smirked. "Indeed."

Marron moved over to a nearby chair and took a seat. She sat there just starring at Spear laying in the bottom of her empty tank. Vegeta watched her closely for a long moment before glancing over to 18. The Android was alternating between watching her daughter and looking over at Trunks. _"Damn Human has to go and screw with my mind."_ he thought looking at Marron again. _"If her antidote saves Trunks..."_

"Master Vegeta." Gero said walking up beside him. "There is something else I need to speak with you about." He motioned to a corner of the room away from the others and the two walked over to it out of ear shot. "I was contacted while making the antidote. A man by the name of Xeno Biphoa, head of the Geozan 7 Xerudia extraction project. They found something frozen in the ice there. Something most... interesting."

"What is it?" Vegeta asked.

"A space pod." Gero replied. "According to the transponder signal... Bardock's space pod."

"What? But... how could... he's dead! I saw Cooler kill him!" he hissed.

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17 sighed as he looked at Pan's Regen Tank. In a few moments it would be draining and she would emerge, probably in a really good mood. He hated having to ruin that mood. He'd been looking forward to the next week himself, probably as much as she had been. But now... He'd already made arrangements and at a word he would have her on a flight back to Saiya. The Android didn't like Goten very much but he was Pan's uncle and she did look up to him a good bit. He could understand why though, he'd been the one raising her while Gohan was off on business.

He glanced up as the tank beeped and the fluid began to drain from it. He pushed off from the wall he'd been leaning against and walked over to Pan. It only took a second for the tank to empty and the cover to open. She smiled at him as she grabbed the change of clothes he'd brought her and started getting dressed. "Did you wait for me this whole time?" she asked.

"No." 17 said with a sigh. "I tried to get a little work done while I had the time." He ran a hand through his hair. "Pan... something's happened back on Saiya. Gohan contacted me earlier trying to get in touch with you..."

"What is it 17?" Pan asked pulling on her shirt and then turning to look at him.

"It's Goten and Trunks. They've been poisoned... and it isn't looking very good for them right now."

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Tien gazed in at the seven orbs that would save all the Humans on Earth. During one of their hunts for the Dragonballs years ago Enzeru had noticed that simple lead would interfere with the energy signal of the Dragonballs. Enough lead and you could block the signal from detection completely. So after tracking them down last time they locked them away inside a lead case to hide them so that the Masters could't make use of them anymore.

Things had been hectic during the past six hours. Enzeru and Mitsuki had set about with the gathering of the items they wanted to save. Everything would be placed into capsules and then into pockets so they could take the stuff with them. Meanwhile Krillin and Yamcha were trying to calm down the general public which had since learned of the incoming threat.

Tien had tried to figure out the point of sending Frieza. Cold and the new Master, Inferna, were already on the planet. Well, they had been. The two had left the world just over an hour ago and Earth was once more void of Masters. The Empire's soldiers were packing up and leaving as well. In just a few more hours the only ones left on Earth would be the Humans.

"Tien!" Enzeru called from behind him. The tri-clops turned from the seven Dragonballs and looked over to where Enzeru stood in the doorway to the room. "More news from Saiya, this time good news." she said. "We just got word in now because of how hectic things have been. Six hours ago Goten and Trunks were poisoned by some Eawpon woman." Enzeru grinned. "It's the Kiss of Death."

Tien sighed. "That's good news at least. Unless the Masters can pull off a miracle it'll be two less of them to worry about."

"You don't seem as happy as I'd expected." Enzeru said walking over to him and placing a hand on his shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Tien said turning from her and looking at the Dragonballs again.

Enzeru moved in closer to him and wrapped her arms around his waist before resting her head on his shoulder. "You're lying." she said. "I can feel it. Something is bothering you."

Tien remained silent for a long time as he just stood there. "It's just... Earth wont be here this time next week. It just makes everything feel so hopeless now." He sighed and closed his eyes for a moment before turning around and looking down into her eyes. "It just shows how little we can really do."

"It shows how strong we are." Enzeru said. "Vegeta's afraid of us, that's something at least."

Tien shook his head. "Vegeta's not afraid of us, he's afraid of a Hybrid that he dosen't know about coming along. It would be nice but it's not going to happen. The Sai-jins are way to careful about that."

"Don't worry so much Tien." she said. "Tao's eventually going to find the ancient's Homeworld. When he comes back we'll be that much more powerful." She leaned up and kissed him. "Come on, we have work to do.

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Tao and Nail had been moving along through the thick trees and underbrush for only about ten or fifteen mintues so far. The rain still had not let up, it had in fact grown more intense as they'd walked. Neither had said a thing as they traveled picking their way along, both lost in their thoughts. Nail's mind was on his world and his people. He wondered how they were doing. Last time he'd seen Dende the young Namek had been asking him to be careful and he'd promised him he'd come back, Nail didn't intend to break that promise.

Tao's thoughts were on matters of the future, not the past. He had a plan for getting off the planet and for getting to his next destination. What he didn't have was a plan for getting more supplies. Now that he had company on his trip his supplies would go down faster. Granted, the Namek would only be drinking water since they didn't eat, but that was still a concern. So was his dwindling food supplies. He'd need to check the routes to the next world for a way point that would be safe to stop at. Hopefully he could purchase his supplies this time around.

Both suddenly stopped dead however, the Namek in mid step. They simply froze where they stood and pushed their powers as low as they would go. A large power was nearing them rapidly. Expanding his senses Tao realized the person was heading straight for Ginyu. Both warriors glanced up through the trees as the power neared hoping to catch sight of just who this power belonged too. As the powers neared they realized it was not one person but two of them.

A second later two streaks flew by over head and the two warriors below glanced at each other. "Jeice and Recoome." Nail said. "I wonder what they're so excited about?"

"I wonder what they're doing back here already." Tao said. "When I arrived the other day they were just leaving for somewhere. There's no way they could have gotten there and back already..."

"Perhaps a ship malfunction?" Nail asked.

Tao remained silent for a long moment as he thought back to his arrival. He knew how the large saucer ships worked fairly well, they couldn't just stop dead or turn on a dime... "No. I don't think that's it." Tao said after a moment. "I passed by them at a good distance out by the eigth planet in this system. My ship is faster than their saucer ship, plus taking into acount the time to turn one of those ships around..."

"They saw you coming in?"

"No. Freiza probably contacted them shortly after you escaped. Ordered them back to the planet. But I have no doubt their radars would have picked me up when I came in, they just ignored it. So they know where my ship is."

"Damn."

"We'll have to chance flying for it, full speed. If we're lucky we can get to the ship and into space before they catch us. It shouldn't be more than a two mintue flight to my ship."

"Right." Nail said nodding. He and Tao lifted into the air and drifted up above the trees. They cast a glance after the retreating forms of Jiece and Recoome before speeding off towards Tao's ship. The Human quickly outpaced the Namek on the flight. Both of them also felt Jiece and Recoome slow for a moment as they took off. They'd been detected.

By the time Nail reached the area he'd seen Tao descend into he could feel Ginyu, Jiece, Recoome, Zarban, and Dodarla nearing him. He dropped down quickly and landed near the ship. It looked like an enlarged space pod. As Nail's feet touched down Tao emerged from inside. "Get into the ship quickly. I'll stall our pursuers."

Nail nodded and got into the ship as Tao floated up above the trees again. After a moment he could feel that they were all close enough and moved his hands up to his face. "Solar Flare!" Tao cried as the brilliant flash filled the sky above the trees. He knew it could have been brighter if it hadn't been for the clouds but it would hold them off long enough to get away. Quickly he dropped down into the trees and entered the ship. He moved to the controls and pushed the launch button just as the door finished closing.

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It had been nearly a half hour since he'd contacted Gero and ten mintues since he'd gotten the return message. They were to retrieve the pod and determine who was inside, if anyone. A ship would be by in about two weeks to pick up the pod and whoever may be inside. Xeno sighed as he leaned back against the cold ice. He was at the bottom of the tunnel again watching the others dig out the pod. If something bad happened he was the one in charge and would be the one to take the blame. So he was going to make sure nothing did happen.

They still had a lot of work to do. The ice was thick and they had to go even slower than normal. Damaging the ship could cause the air in the pod to escape which would break the natural cryostasis. Any occupant would be dead in a matter of seconds from the cold in that case. No, they had to extract the pod slowly and then slowly thaw the person. Flash freezing for cryostasis, slow and steady for revival.

"Xeno... come here a minute." Eve called over. The alien glanced up and saw her pressing her ear against the cold ice where she was working. He shivered instinctively at seeing her skimply dressed form in the midst of the cold around them.

Standing up he moved over to her. "What is it Eve?"

"Take a listen." she said motioning to the ice.

Xeno looked at her for a moment then moved in closer and listened closely. "What the hell?" he wondered. "Talking?"

"Sounds like it. But I can't make it out. Could be a recording inside the ship."

Xeno nodded and turned. "Someone go get a sound amplifier!" he ordered. He turned back and listened to the sounds again but still couldn't make anything out. It was about five or ten mintues later that someone handed him the audio amplifier. He aimed one end at the ice encased pod and then plugged it into the computer.

At first nothing but gibberish came through the speakers but then bits of speech became noticable as Eve adjusted the settings. After a moment they could hear the sounds coming from the pod. "Ghairanadkr wa...n dogonikaock kill bnoxoenznour Kakkarotto aboecekjzqeio uionkieb musztic." From there it was nothing but static and then it repeated itself a second later. Most of the message was gibberish but two words did stand out. "Kill" and "Kakkarotto".

"What the hell?" Xeno wondered.

"Warn, kill, Kakkarotto..." Eve said.

Xeno glanced over to her. "Warn?"

"Near the begining. I could just barely discern an r sound to 'Wa...n' part. The message seems to have been some kind of warning meant for Master Kakkarotto. About someone being killed maybe?"

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Shin gazed out over the gathering of sparring warriors. He'd spoken to both Olibu and Pikkon already, both were willing to aid him in training the warriors from Earth. Olibu was more than willing, especially after learning that his home world was about to be destroyed by one of the Masters. After speaking with the two of them he'd tracked down the two Metmorians the Grand Kai had spoken of. After a quick demonstration of the skills they possessed and could teach to his selected warriors Shin asked for their help in the training as well, and recieved it.

Now he was scouting the warriors for anyone else that could be useful in the training. Unfortunately most of the warriors here, while powerful, were not of the calibre he needed for this. True, the Metamorians were weaker than the Humans they would be training but their skills were the important matter. So far Shin had not seen any skills from these others worth passing along. "Perhaps I am overlooking something..."

"I believe you are." the Grand Kai said walking up beside him. "You have scouted my world quite thoroughly for warriors but you have not gone beyond it."

Shin looked over to him for a moment and then suddenly smiled. "I know who you are thinking of, and you're right, they would be perfect for training my warriors."

"Enzeru and Mitsuki specifically I should think."

Nodding, Shin looked back out over the fighters. "Well, it couldn't hurt. Have you spoken to North Kai?"

"Yeah. He's ready for your warriors whenever you can send them. He insists on training them on his planetoid for some reason."

Shin nodded. "That's fine." he lifted into the air a few feet. "Time to go track down a few souls." he said. And with that he shot off over the horizon and around the planet. After a few moments he saw the golden clouds coming into view and flew toward them. It only took a few moments to reach the clouds and break through to the other side. Turning around, he landed on his feet gently. A nearby ogre stared it him in shock as did a few others but most merely ignored this new arrival.

He ignored them as well as he looked for those he sought. He knew of several warriors residing in the H.F.I.L. that would be more than happy to help him in defeating the Masters. _"Now, where could they be..."_ he wondered. Suddenly the sky in the distance lit up with bright flashes of light as loud cracks echoed across the landscape. The others either didn't notice or were used to it. Shin grinned. _"Just follow the sounds of battle."_ he thought. _"I should have known."_

Shin walked off toward the sounds of the fight and started up a nearby hill. As he crested it he saw two of the people was was looking for standing on the ground and looking up into the sky and figured the other two were the ones fighting. "Come on!" one of the two on the ground suddenly yelled up at the two that were fighting sounded exasperated. "Focus!" he cried crossing his arms.

The two fighters stopped and one looked down frowning. "If you'd let me transform!"

"Forget it! You wouldn't get a workout that way. The idea is to train to get stronger, you can't do that if you're more than 30 times stronger than your opponent."

"But Father!"

"No buts!"

"Why the hell does it even matter if we train! We're dead!"

Shin grinned. "He does have a point Bardock." he said looking down at them from where he stood. The four dead warriors turned their attention toward him. "Though it is good for us that you keep insisting on training."

"Supreme Kai, what brings you down here?" Bardock asked uncrossing his arms.

"The chance to escort the Masters down here." he replied. "A chance at defeating them has come along, one I don't intend to let slip away. I was hoping the four of you would be interested in training a few warriors."

"Who could possibly stand up to them?" Raditz asked landing. "Last time I heard Kakkarotto's power was over a million in his base form."

Shin nodded. "Yes. His power has only gone up since then, and he's now capable of transforming to the third level of Super Sai-jin. And there's also far more Masters now than when you were alive. 19 of them in total."

"So how could anyone stand up to them?" the man beside Bardock asked.

"With the right training and a little help from us, it can be done Daimao." Shin said. "I've already attained the help of four warriors from the Grand Kai's world as well as one of the lower Kais. This isn't just some last minute thing, if we do this it is going to be a long and hard process, for my warriors and for you."

"What's in it for us?" the fourth man asked as he landed and crossed his arms frowning.

Shin expected as much from him. "Life." Shin replied looking over at the large bald Sai-jin. "In exchange for helping train the Humans I can arrange your ressurections."


	9. Silent Mercy

A/N: Three names will appear in this chapter that I feel I should explain the pronunciation of. The first is straight forward enough, Insofu is pronounced In-so-fu. Simple. The second is Itenu. It is pronounced Eye-ten-you. The third name is Insenu. It's pronounced Ins-en-ew.

Also, I'm having computer problems and I'm working on NaNo again this year. There will be no more updates to any of my Fanfictions until after November.

_Chapter Nine - Silent Mercy_

"Still no sign of Slug or Turles." Piccolo said landing.

"If Slug's here Turles must be as well. Damn them. Do you have any idea how embarssing it is to have them walking around on _my_ world like they own it?" Cell growled.

Piccolo snorted. "Not as much as letting Nail escape with Tao." he said with a grin. "Frieza's never going to live that down."

Cell smirked. "True."

The two of them stood in the center of the town below Cell's palace. They'd spent the last six hours scouring the entire planet for any sign of Slug or Turles but neither had any luck. None of the villagers had seen either of them, and they would stand out among the two foot tall and orange skinned natives. "They're here for a reason..." Piccolo said thinking.

"Perhaps one of those artifacts they and Tao seem to be so interested in?" Cell replied nodding. "But I've seen no signs that the Ancients were ever on this world..."

"I suggest we split up and look again." Piccolo said as he clenched his fists and began to grunt and his aura flared and pulsed about his body. A moment later, with a loud cry, Piccolo split into four. They all looked at Cell and spoke at the same time. "If they are after an artifact I'd rather find it first. That way Tao would have to come to us to get it."

Cell nodded and a moment later he'd divided into four people as well. "I'll take the western hemiphere, you take the east." the four said. "I don't intend to pull a Frieza and let them get past under my nose and escape."

"Right." The four Piccolo's nodded and blasted off. A moment later Cell was off again as well.

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17 sat with Pan in his room. She'd not wanted to go back to Saiya but she'd been talking with Bulma since they'd gotten to his room a few minutes ago. They'd managed to get a line connection into the Regen Bay for communications. Both had been rather relieved that a possible antidote had been found. 17 had been rather surprised at who it was that had found it though. Pan, on the other hand, was too worried about her uncle to completely absorb the fact that 18 had a daughter.

Time seemed to drag on as everyone waited to see the results of the antidote test on Spear. The techs had eventually hooked her back up to the tank and filed it again for that extra little bit of help. Finally, her eyes fluttered open and she began to stir. She seemed... out of it... at first. But soon realized where she was and remembered what had happened. She couldn't figure out how she was still alive though, until she heard the sounds from outside.

"It worked!" Bulma cried walking over and looking into the tank at Spear. "She's awake again..."

The techs hurried about and ran a new tox screen on her. "She's clean." one of them said. "The poison has been completely removed and so has the byproducts of the antidote."

_"Antidote?"_ Spear thought. _"But... but... how! The plan was perfect!"_

Bulma walked over to Marron and pulled the girl up into a hug. "Thank-you... thank-you so much." she said.

"Don't thank me yet Lady Bulma." Marron said after she'd been let go. "Wait until we're sure it works on Trunks and Goten. There's still some danger."

"She is correct." Gero said handing over two syringes to the techs. "One success does not mean it will always work. But it is a good sign." He'd gone off to make the other batches just in case while they waited to see how it worked on Spear. Now the techs were draining the other two tanks and preparing to inject the two Hybrids. Everyone held their breath as they were injected. Once more the bubbles formed uner the skin for a moment but they soon went away and the tanks were re-filled.

Once more everyone was left waiting, worried. "Has anyone talked to my Grandpa, Grandma, or dad yet?" Pan suddenly asked.

Vegeta nodded. "I called them right before I called you. Kakkarotto and Gohan probably already spoke with Chi-Chi."

"Doubt it." 18 said grinning. "Or we'd have heard her screaming by now."

Bra and Pan both cracked up laughing for a moment, their worries temporarily forgotten. That is, until the alarms started going off around Goten's regen tank. The techs began rushing about madly to see what was wrong. "He's not flushing out the waste." one of them called. "It's just building up!"

"Try adding 50CCs of FoP2 to his tank!" called another.

The techs worked madly as they tried one thing after another to try and stabilize Goten. Slowly the green fluid of his tank began to turn blue from the extra solutions being added to combat the problem he was having. "Heart rate is climbing!" a tech called out. "The excess waste is starting to poison his system... Cardiac Arrest! His heart's stopped!" The sirens stopped and turned into a loud wail as Goten's tank flashed once. Then again a moment later. The chaos continued on for a several agonizingly long moments and then all went quiet and the tank began to drain.

The tech at the controls swallowed as he stared at the words flashing on the screen. "M-Master Goten.... is dead." he stuttered. "Time of death, 11:08 PM."

The room was silent for a long moment and then Pan's soft cries came over the com system. Marron put her head in her hands and closed her eyes. _"It's my fault... It was my antidote that killed him..."_ she thought chocking back tears. Bra moved over to her Bulma and pressed her face into her shoulder crying. Everyone turned toward the monitor at the sound of a loud crack and saw 17 staring out a new hole in the wall and Pan missing.

"She'll be okay." 18 said. "She just needs some time. Her family is probably the closest of the Masters."

17 nodded. "Yeah. I think I'll let her go for now. Give her a few minutes before going after her." he was quiet for a moment. "My prayers are with you guys, I hope Master Trunks fairs better."

"Thank-you, 17." Bulma said as17 walked over to the hole in the wall. He stood there staring out into the snow. He couldn't see Pan but his scanners were still tracking her power. She'd gone out a good three or four miles now and her power was churning wildly. He'd remembered the way Gohan had vented his own emotions a few years ago when his newborn son had died only mintues after his birth. Bracing himself he waited for the coming rush power as she let her emotions go.

A moment later he saw it starting, the blue glow seeping through the falling snow. And then her cries began to echo through the skies. He watched as the blue suddenly flashed to gold and the rush of energy tore apart the clouds and cleared away the raging blizzard for miles around her. With his enhanced vision he could see her now, clearly as if she were standing right there with him. Arms and head thrown back, tears sliding down her cheeks.

He watched his scanners as her power climbed quickly to her maximum and then pushed at it as she let her power wash out across the entire planet which was now shaking. Suddenly his eyes widened as he saw a spark of blue dance across her raging aura. "Was that...?" he wondered.

Her screams echoed louder as her aura began to pulse rapidly. More sparks of blue flashed across her aura as her head went back farther and her arms bent back more. 17's scanners stopped as an error message appeared. Her power had surpassed 200 million, his scanners couldn't handle that. "Damn... I don't believe it! She... she's ascending!" 17 cried.

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Bulma turned from the monitor as 17 walked from it. Her eyes went back to Goten for a moment as the techs pulled him from the tank and laid him out on a stretcher. Then her eyes drifted over to Marron who still had her head in her heads. She could tell the woman was crying as 18 placed a hand on her shoulder. _"A few days ago I bet she wouldn't have given Goten's death a second thought. Or even Trunks's. It's probably 18's connection with Trunks that prompted her to find the antidote... and the fact it was her antidote that killed Goten that's got her so upset. The poor girl, she didn't ask to be thrown into this mess... Oh, by Kami, I hope Vegeta makes the right choice when this is over."_

As she turned her eyes back to Trunks she could hear the faint sounds of Pan's screams over the montior in the distance on Planet Cooler. And then she could see the faint golden glow that danced in the room through the monitor. It was Vegeta's startled gasp that made her turn. The Sai-jin was looking through the monitor and past 17 to where they could just faintly make out Pan's form. "Her power is starting to buil..." he started but was soon cut of by 17's own cry of shock which directed everyone's attention to the screen.

Suddenly Pan's body flashed and a new wash of power sped across Planet Cooler reaching Vegeta's senses on Saiya several seconds later. The golden light filled the monitor and bathed the Regen bay in it's golden glow. And then, a second later, the glow vanished and the power subsided.

"Things have changed so much in just one day." 18 said softly. "Marron, Cooler, Goten, and now Pan."

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Xeno watched as Eve and Everfrost chiseled out the pod. They'd managed to determine the age of the ice in the area. Whoever was in the pod had been frozen here for the last 35 years. They'd also worked out how they'd handle this. Since they didn't have the proper resources on the planet to deal with cryostasis reversal the pod would be extracted from the ice and moved to the surface. They wouldn't open it at the campsite however. It would be taken to the Capsule Corp. Command Ship and loaded into one of it's cryostatsis bays and secured. In a few days a transport ship on it's way to Saiya from Planet Frieza would come by and pick him up.

They'd have to carefully move him from his space pod and into an actual cryostasis tank at that point and store the pod seperately. The cargo ship would then take him to Saiya where Dr. Gero would examine him and thaw him out. Meanwhile they'd work on figuring out how a dead Sai-jin's destroyed space pod had found it's way to Geozan 7 more than twenty years ago. And all this was assuming that the occupant was not the Sai-jin the pod belonged to. If Bardock _was_ inside the thing though... well, that would be a head trip.

The entire Empire knew the story of Bardock. Hell, it was part of intergalactic history classes on all the worlds. Brolly's power had been exceptional, especially for a child, and Paragus had plans to make use of that power. He had planned to use Brolly's power to overthrow the Masters. Bardock had gotten word of the conspiracy and tracked the two Sai-jins down to some remote planet, Xeno couldn't remember its name any more. Once there he'd confronted them and the three had fought, Bardock quickly losing his ground against the two more powerful Sai-jins.

Now, it was well known that Bardock had always disliked the Changelings from the moment he'd met them. It was also well known that his loyalty lay not with the Masters but with the Sai-jin King. The events of that day, of that battle on that remote planet, were proof enough of that. All they had was the audio recording from Bardock's scouter to piece together what happened, but it was enough.

The three had fought and Bardock had been losing. With the Sai-jin at death's door Paragus revealed to him his plans.He wasn't after just the Changelings as most of the Empire had assumed. He wanted to take out _all_ the Masters. That included the Sai-jin King and the young Prince Vegeta. Bardock had made some speech about Sai-jin pride and that he wouldn't allow the two of them to harm the King or the Prince.

Xeno leaned back against the cold ice and closed his eyes as he remembered hearing some of Bardock's speech. _"You're forgetting something, I am a Sai-jin! I do not give up, I do not surrender, and I do not lose. You're right, I'm finished, I'm not leaving this world alive. I know that, even if you left me here I'd be dead in a couple of hours. But when I go I plan on taking you with me!"_ After that was about a mintue of screams from Bardock as he unleashed his power. The scouter was destroyed shortly thereafter, and a moment later so was the entire planet Bardock had been on.

The Sai-jin had given all of his energy in a self destruct attack that took out the planet he'd been on and the two Sai-jin's he'd been fighting. Bardock had been a well known name within the early Empire for that reason, for his sacrifice. And he'd become a role model that many young Sai-jins tried to follow. Pride in his heritage, his people, himself, and his King. He was what was considered the perfect Sai-jin.

So how could Bardock possibly be inside the space pod? Hell, how could it be _his_ pod? It had been on that world too and gone with the three Sai-jins. Xeno could think of a few answers, none of which made much sense. Either someone had managed to escape before the planet was destroyed or the pod somehow survived the planet's destruction and was flung this far into space. Personally he didn't like either one of those answers. Neither one made much sense to him.

"Done." Eve said walking over to him.

Xeno nodded and stood. The time for wondering was over, in a few moments he'd be able to see inside the pod and he would know for certain. Whether this would create more questions or answer the ones he had was yet to be seen. He moved over to the ship and watched as the six strongest of the workers lifted it free of it's icy grave and brought it into the open once more. Xeno moved around in front and peered in through the red glass. Brushing off the ice crystals with his gloved hands he gazed in at the occupant.

"It's not Bardock, I can tell you that much, but I don't recognize the person... wait... he does look kind of familiar..." He looked him up and down but the clothing he wore wasn't familiar and there were no markings on him either.

"Well, he's been here for 35 years." Eve said walking over to join him with Everfrost at her side. "So it's not like you'd have seen his face on TV this morning."

"Funny." Xeno said frowning. "Real funny. You ever think of doing stand-up?"

She smirked at him and looked inside. "Hmm. Well, from those muscles I'd say he's probably a fighter of some kind. And he's definately a Sai-jin. Only three races in this universe look like this, Sai-jins, Humans, and Vaaddaas. The Humans weren't part of the Empire until 35 years ago, October was first contact in fact. Well, outside of Master Kakkarotto growing up there at least. And Vaaddaa males are large and tank like as the standard. Recoome's a runt."

"Yeah." Xeno said stepping back and crossing his arms. "He's also got the Sai-jin hair style, wild and black." He frowned as he looked at the pod a moment longer. "So, why does he look familiar? I don't know that many Sai-jins. Just the Masters really, and he's not a Master and doesn't resemble any of them either." He paused again and frowned more. "And is there a way to turn off that infernal message? Now that it's out of the ice I can hear it clear as day!"

"We'll look into it after we get it to the ship." one of the workers said. "If not, it's not that big of a deal."

Xeno snorted and moved over to the computer. With a few button presses he pulled up info on all the Sai-jin Masters and their families. He moved to just the ones old enough to be frozen here. "We know it's not Master Vegeta, Master Gohan, or Master Kakkarotto..." he said closing those ones. "That leaves only two family members, Turles and Bardock. Both of them are damn near clones of Master Kakkarotto so it's definitely not them. Damn, that leaves no one!"

"What about other famous Sai-jins?" Everfrost asked.

Xeno pursed his lips and clicked through the files some more before pulling up the history files and locating the picutres of Bardock, Paragus, and Brolly. "Shit!" he cried staring at the screen. "There's no way in hell...." he trailed off as he picked up the computer and walked around to the front of the pod again. He glanced from the screen to the face in the pod and then back to the screen again. "By the Kais! It _is_ him! He's older but it's definitely Brolly!"

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Gohan watched his father moving through a series of different katas. He'd done a more intense workout a few hours ago and then had switched to this. It was his way to keep his mind busy and focus it on something... not as painful. If it weren't for the fact they'd rip the ship apart they'd be sparring again to keep their minds away from the possibility that Goten may not be alive when they got back to Saiya.

_"So calm and fluid... his form keeps getting better everytime I see him. It's amazing. I don't think anyone's even close to him in skill."_ Gohan thought. _"Though I'd bet Piccolo would be the closest. He's practically a Sai-jin in mindset."_ Gohan suddenly smirked. _"In fact, the only things stopping him from being Sai-jin are his lack of eating and non existant sex drive."_

Gohan suddenly felt something pulling at his mind and focused on it. _"Pan?"_ "Hey dad, can you feel that?" he called.

Kakkarotto stopped in his motions and focused. "Yeah. Isn't that Pan?"

Gohan nodded. "Her power is... she's ascending!" he cried in shock. Kakkarotto was the only one to have attained the third level, and for the longest time Vegeta had been the only other one who could go beyond Super Sai-jin. Gohan had reached it next, and then Trunks. They'd all figured Pan's Sai-jin blood was too thin for her to go beyond Super Sai-jin but here she was, proving them all wrong. "She's even younger than I was!"

Kakkarotto nodded. Gohan had reached the second level 15 years ago at the age of 24. Pan was still a teenager, only 17. This was something indeed, something Kakkarotto wasn't sure he liked. "What set her off though?" he asked silently, not sure he wanted to know the answer. The two Sai-jins glanced at each other and then turned to head back to the command room.

They reached it in a matter of moments, just as a message came in. Kakkarotto nodded to someone at the controls and the monitor flared up. Vegeta's face took up most of the large screen but behind him they could see 18, Bulma, Bra, and someone they didn't recognize. "I know." Kakkarotto said simply, before Vegeta had the chance to speak. "I felt Pan's power."

Vegeta nodded. "You should know something." he said after a moment. "It wasn't the poison that killed him, it was an adverse reaction to the antidote. An antidote which was found by 18's daughter."

The two powerful Sai-jins glanced at each other for a moment. "And Trunks?" Gohan asked as he turned his eyes back to the screen.

"So far so good." Vegeta replied. "The Eawpon woman made a full recovery as well."

"That's good to know." Kakkarotto said cracking his neck.

Vegeta nodded in understanding. "Thought you might like that. Still, this raises a new problem. Perhaps we're looking at her from the wrong angle."

"18's daughter you mean?" Gohan asked.

"Yes. Maybe, instead of seeing her as an outsider, we should look at her as part of us." Vegeta said. "And if she does have a child who says it'll turn on us? Raise him as a Master."

"That could work." Gohan said with a nod. "We'll go with that, but keep a close eye on her Vegeta. If anything starts to go... off with her."

"I know."

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Inferna sat in her chair aboard her ship once more. She'd left the Earth several hours earlier as had Cold. They'd decided to go to her world where Cold would be shown the workings of the empire that she'd built. They would spend the next few months integrating the two empires. There was also talk of re-ordering the ruling structure of the Empire and moving some of the existing Masters into her galaxy to help her out.

She'd also felt Cooler's sudden power spike earlier and learned he'd 'unlocked' his sixth form. That was one thing she'd found odd about these North Galaxy creatures. They had to gain their transformations. Every race she'd encountered within her own galaxy was born with them, just as she had been. It seemed very odd to her that any race would need to 'unlock' a transformation.

Cold had explained it fairly well though. For the Sai-jins it was more of a survival trait. There were other triggering factors but the main source was survival. Beyond that one characteristic that held true for them all was power. He'd told her just how weak all the Masters had been upon birth, espeically Kakkarotto, and it was hard to believe. But it did make the 'unlockable' transformations make sense.

Well, it had until she'd learned Kakkarotto had been born with the power to transform. Cold said that according to Dr. Gero, Kakkarotto's body was simply more resiliant to high levels of power beyond what he was cappable of. Perhaps that explained why he had attained the third level of Super Sai-jin when no other had. She sighed and rubbed her head. The whole mess was very confusing.

Suddenly her eyes widened as a new power hit her senses. "Amazing!" she cried standing. Her crew turned to look at her and then felt it as well, their eyes widening in shock. She thumbed the button on her chair and was patched through to Cold in a matter of seconds. "That power? Do you know?" she asked as it began to subside.

"That felt like Pan." Cold said slowly. "I'd say she just did the impossible and reached the second level of Super Sai-jin."

Inferna shook her head in disbelief. From the time-line of events that Cold had outlined for her she knew that Pan was still only a child. It wouldn't be for another three years yet that the Eternal Youth magic would kick in for her and yet, already, she was one of the strongest in the universe. Cold had said that Cooler's transformation earlier made him the fourth strongest, Pan's new one made her stronger so she was now fourth strongest, at the least.

For years she'd assumed her power was the pinnacle of what living beings could attain but now she saw just how small her power truely was. Well, she'd work on that. She would not stay so low on the list of power for long. Even if it meant braving the Ordiron Challange.

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The Grand Kai looked up as he felt the nearing powers. "Well now, we're about to receive some unusal visitors indeed." he said with a small smile. Pikkon and Olibu stopped their spar and turned to look. A moment later Shin landed with Bardock, Raditz, Nappa, and Daimao right behind him.

Standing beside the Grand Kai were the two Metamorians. They were short, only about three foot tall. They were also covered in silver blue scales and had foot-high mohawks of pink hair. Their faces were fish like and their eyes cat like. Their clothes were nothing more than simple white togas held closed with belts of black. Imposing they were not. Neither in appearance or in power.

Bardock gauged them quickly, as well as the three others before him. He could tell from his garb that the bearded man was a Kai, most likely the Grand Kai. He could also tell that the green man's clothes were weighted but the blonde's were not. _"An interesting collection of fighters the Supreme Kai has assembled to train these Humans. Interesting indeed."_ "So, where are our 'students' then?" he asked.

"We have a few more days before they arrive." Shin replied. "The Earth will not be destroyed for another six days or so. Until then the eight of you will be preparing for them and learning to work together. I don't know how long it will take them to get past the North Kai's training and tests and be passed along to us, it may be a few weeks or months before their training under you begins."

"I'm just glad to be out of that hellhole for a while." Raditz said casting a glance back over the horizon toward the unseen golden clouds. "A number of the others down their were begining to grate on my nerves."

"Just be happy we were sent to the H.F.I.L. and not to Hell." Bardock said looking over to Raditz. "Things could have been worse." He turned back toward the others. "I must ask though, these two at least seem powerful, why do you need our help?"

Shin nodded. "An understandable question. Pikkon here is the strongest in Otherworld so he will make a powerful sparring partner for my warriors. Olibu is Human and has mastered the Human transformation, a valuable asset in this venture that needs to be passed along. The Metamorians, Insofu and Itenu here, possess a skill that will aid my warriors greatly. Daimao is a good sparring partner, the Humans are around his level of power. As for you three Sai-jins. Well, that will become clear in time."

Shin turned and moved over to where the Grand Kai stood. "Meanwhile, since I am hoping to have you revived in time to help the Earthlings fight the Masters we will train you as well. This first technique will only work for Bardock and Raditz. Similiar size and race are required for this. Also similar strengths help but it's not completely needed. Insofu, Itenu, if you would please."

The two short aliens moved to where Olibu and Pikkon had been sparring a moment before and then turned to face the gathering of warriors. They stood a good distance appart and Bardock could tell that the stronger one was lowering it's power. A second later the two powers were nearly even with each other and the aliens moved through a series of odd motions calling out along the way. "Fuuuuuuuuu. Sion. Ha!" Their fingers touched and there was a bright flash. When the light died, one warrior remained, much stronger than the original two. Ten times stronger than the weaker of the two had been.

"It is called Fusion." Shin said looking over to Bardock and Raditz. "The Metamorians will teach the two of you this ability as best they can while we await the Earthlings. But first, time for Raditz to get a real work out. Pikkon." The green alien stepped forward and began stripping his weights. Once they were off he tossed them aside and took a fighting stance. "I suggest you transform." Shin said.

Raditz glanced at Shin then back at Pikkon. _"I should have listened to Father and learned to sense KI."_ he thought grimly. Since he couldn't he took Shin's advice and in a flash of gold transformed into a Super Sai-jin. His long hair turned golden and his eyes teal. Several tufts of hair spiked up on the top of his head as well. He then slid into a fighting stance.

The Grand Kai grinned as a small gathering of Otherworld Warriors formed around them. None of them had seen Bardock or the others up here before though a few no doubt recognized them, or at least the Super Sai-jin form. "Alright, go!" the Supreme Kai ordered. The two warriors lunged in at each other and began the spar.


	10. The Path to Home

A/N: So sorry this took so long. TDOY is a complex story with a lot going on at once and after my computer died and I was unalbe to write for 2 weeks I forgot what I had done and what I'd only planned to do for this story. I've since gone through and skimmed it all creating a small time-line / out-line for it and now I can continue once more!

_Chapter Ten - The Path to Home_

18 had watched as her daughter had tentatively moved from where she sat over to speak with Bra. Her ears had picked up the conversation from where she was, mainly because she was focusing on it and actually trying to hear it. It had started with a very nervous 'hi' and then Marron had tried her best to help the other girl forget the danger Trunks was in, and to assure her that her brother would be okay everytime Bra came back to that topic. The Android felt a touch of sadness, she could hear the pain in Marron's voice.

After a few mintues their conversation shifted to Goten. 18 noticed Vegeta direct his gaze from Trunks to the Eawpon woman and glare at her as Bra broke down into tears. Vegeta's eyes moved toward his daughter and he both stiffened and relaxed at the sight. Bra had her face buried in Marron's shoulder crying, the blonde girl trying to comfort her. The Android watched his reactions closely and could tell that Marron would be fine. That was one weight off her chest at least. Turning her eyes back to Trunks she continued to wait on his recovery.

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"So then, everything is in order?" Tien asked the young man he was speaking with.

"Yes sir. We've cleared the upper levels of all refugees, they're in the bomb shelters now. The kitchen's have been brought on-line and we have about four hundred people going through the capsulated food reserves. Area six-zero-six-one has been prepared and is ready as well."

Tien nodded. "Good. Everything's ready then. Now we just wait for Frieza to come."

"Are..." the youth started tentatively. The curious look from Tien prompted him to continue. "Are we really evacuating everyone from Earth?"

Tien nodded. "It wont be here next week." he said sadly. "We've already found the perfect planet out there and it's been ready for us for a few years now. Shenron sheilded it so the Masters can't find it. We'll be safe there."

The man nodded but another behind him grunted. "I don't like hiding." he growled. "I'd rather just blast Frieza out of the sky!"

"I know how you feel." Enzeru said walking into the room from outside. "But even we are no match for the Masters yet..."

The man grunted again. "And as you get stronger so do they, and they're faster at it! At this rate you'll only get further and further behind them!" and with that he stormed off, the other following after him quickly.

"He's right, you know." Tien said solemnly. "The Masters grow stronger by the hour. We're only Human, Enzeru... how... how can we catch them?"

She rested her hand on his cheek before leaning in to kiss him. As she pulled back again she looked him in the eyes. "Tao will find the Ancient's Homeworld. He'll get us the Potaras. With them we will defeat the Masters. We even have improved chances now that I have my someone to fuse with as well."

Tien sighed and nodded. He often wondered how Enzeru could be so optimistic no matter the situation. "I hope so." he said. "Too many people have already died..." Enzeru kissed him again as she realized his mind had wandered back to his childhood friend.

"Come on Tien, the others are waiting for us." she said walking from the room.

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Mitsuki leaned against the stone railing of the baclony as she gazed out over the ruined remains of West City. As the chill wind blew across her face and tousled her hair she closed her eyes and considered the day's events. When she'd gotten up that morning she'd been a soldier in the Empire's army. Now... well, now she was one of the rebels. "Blown in the winds to far away lands, controlled by the whims of the gods in the clouds, no path to follow to where I call home, blown in the winds to far away lands." she said softly. It was a poem she'd heard a few years back and it had stuck with her.

"That... sounds like me." a voice said softly from behind her. She turned and saw the young woman from earlier that day, Rei, standing in the doorway. She had on some fresh clothes and she'd been washed up since their first encounter. She could see some fear in her eyes, fear that was fighting a battle against anger. No, against pure hatred.

As soon as her eyes met the other's, Mitsuki cast them to the ground and her shoulders sagged even more than they had been. "Look... Rei... I... I'm sorry I didn't stop... I shouldn't have let them..." she swallowed, not finding the words she wanted. As she stood there with the girl all the things she'd done as a soldier of the Empire came rushing back to her and she fell to her knees and began to cry.

Rei stood there watching her in silence before walking up and kneeling beside her. Mitsuki looked up as she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder and found herself looking right into Rei's eyes once more. The fear was still there, the hatred had ebbed away some, and now an intense sadness was there as well. Mitsuki buried her head in the girl's shoulder as she did the same and both of them sat there crying.

It was this scene that Yamcha, Tien, Krillin, and Enzeru walked in on as they emerged from the building onto the balcony. The four of them stood their in silence for a moment before Tien motioned to go back in. Yamcha and Krillin followed but Enzeru moved out further onto the balcony and rested a hand on each girl's shoulder. Their crying slowed as their tears ran out and a moment later they stood.

Enzeru looked over to Mitsuki first. "We're ready to head out and search the planet for injured. It'll be easier to find them here on Earth as opposed to our next world." Her sister nodded, gave Rei one last glance, and went inside. Enzeru moved in front of Rei then and rested her hands on her shoulders. "How are you holding up?"

Rei nodded slowly, her eyes red from crying. "I'm doing... ok." she said. "It's just... it..."

Enzeru pulled the other girl closer to her and held her. "I know." she whispered softly into her ear. "I know how much it hurts, I know how it feels. I wish... I wish I could say it will go away but it wont, not completely. It wont be so bad in time but it will still be there. You just need to give it time and... I know this is going to sound harsh and hard to do but... you need to try and let go too. If you cling to it, it'll only hurt worse."

Rei nodded against her. "I'll try."

Enzeru pulled back and looked at her again. "Come on, let's head inside. You told Yamcha you're good at tending to injuries, right?"

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17 stood at the hole in the wall Pan had created nearly ten minutes ago. He could still see her aura pulsing brightly in the distance but now it was on ground level. He wasn't sure if he should go to her or let her be. Slowly her aura began to fade and his scanners picked up her power once more, dropping steadily. That was his cue and he launched from the room and out into the blizzard. It only took him a few moments to locate Pan's still dwindling power and land beside her.

She was laying in the snow curled up into a ball and still sobbing softly. He paused as he saw her and just stood their in silence. 17 knew how the Sai-jin viewed such emotions, even though they could fuel their transformations, and didn't want her to know he'd seen her crying. She had the same stance as the others, tears were a sign of weakness. He sat down just far enough away from her that she couldn't see him through the snow and waited.

Five minutes passed, and then ten, and he began to worry about her health out in this cold. Finally he stood and walked over to her, Sai-jin pride be damned. She barely heard his footsteps crunching on the snow as he neared. Her head jerked up quickly as she felt the warmth wash over her and saw 17 standing there, his arms held out, and Ki radiating over her body to keep her warm. Her first instinct was to pull herself back together and hide her weakness. But as she sat up she instead found herself grabbing onto him and crying anew.

17 reached up and rested a hand on the back of her head as she continued to cry. _"You're so different from the rest of your family. I've no doubt that Kakkarotto and Gohan are planning revenge against Spear, possibly all the Eawpon's. And yet you... you let your emotions through. You're not as cold and detatched as they are. Even Videl's becoming cold like them."_ He rested his head against hers. _"It's not a weakness to cry... but here and now you do seem so frail. But don't worry Pan, I'll do everything I can to keep you safe."_

He looked down at her as Pan's sobs faded and found her sleeping. "You rest then." he said picking her up and turning back toward the palace. He could have flown back in a matter of seconds but he didn't feel like it. Instead he walked back slowly holding Pan against him, and thinking. He wasn't sure how much longer the Masters would last. He wasn't expecting an outside force to destroy them, no. He was waiting for them to tear apart from the inside. He'd been seeing it coming for years now, too many of the Masters had different views. All it would take would be one defining moment, one event to set the ball in motion. And then it would all come crashing down around them.

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Dr. Gero sat down at his terminal and pulled up the information on his current work in progess. "Let's see how you're coming along Tenshi." he said going through the data. His fingers clicked across the key board at high speeds as he pulled up reports, live data feeds, and adjusted formulas and compounds. Tenshi was his longest running project, he'd started working on her while designing the Androids, and she was almost finished. Gero frowned as he read over one of the data reports. "No, that's not right, these levels should be higher... Now where did I put that test subject's file..." he muttered digging through a stack of folders.

"Ah, here we are, Test Subject Mitsuki." He flipped the folder open and skimmed through the information quickly. "Now why is this?" he wondered. The levels had been perfect for Mitsuki but they were far too low in Tenshi. "Perhaps..." he stood and walked from his computer and through a series of doors into a large room. In the center of the room was a large tank full of green fluid. Floating in the center of the tank with wires and tubes running to her body, was a young looking woman who appeared to be in her twenties.

She was naked and her blue skin glistened in the lighting of the room. Running down her back was a red stripe with tiger like stripes that reached out and around her body. Her hair reached halfway down her back and was a dark purple in color. Her eyes, currently closed, were a solid purple a few tones lighter than her hair. Gero walked up to the tank and placed a hand against it tracing it along the glass outlining her form. "Perhaps it's due to your age." he said gazing at her. "Your daughter was far younger when I began work on her. The tests on her finished by the time she was fifteen..."

He narrowed his eyes as he gazed at her. "I don't think I can get your levels up to the right point Tenshi. But I can make adjustments for the lower levels. Don't worry, I wont fail. I wont let you die on me. Father's watch out for their daughters." he was about to say more when he heard the door behind him open and, since his sensors picked up no energy readings in the labs, he knew it was one of his creations. Turning he saw the round and extreamly pale white form of 19. "What is it 19?"

"Contact from Xeno again." it said in it's odd voice. "Pod occupant ID confirmed."

"Oh? So then, do tell, who is in that pod?"

"Acorrding to Xeno, it's Brolly."

Gero raised an eyebrow. "Brolly... well now, this is interesting. 19, keep an eye on the lab for me, I'm going to speak with Vegeta again." 19 nodded as Gero walked passed him. Just on the other side of the door he paused and looked back again. "Have you seen 16 recently? I've been meaning to speak with him the last few weeks. I've finished his newest AI upgrade that should fix his operational problems."

"Last I saw 16 he was dealing with Capsule Corp for Vegeta."

Gero nodded and left the lab.

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Five streaks of light moved through the night sky, three white, one blue, and one purple. Mitsuki was using her scouter to track down powerlevels in the city below them while the others used their senses. "Over here!" Mitsuki called dropping down quickly. She descended through a hole in the roof of a home and landed in the living room. There she found four people. There was an old man standing there, probably in his seventies or eighties, a man in his mid fourties or so, a young girl no more than fifteen or sixteen, and a young boy of about eight laying on a torn and dirty couch. He was soaked in sweat and shivering.

Mitsuki's gaze turned to the old man as she heard the sound of a gun cocking and found him aiming a shotgun at her head. "It's okay, I'm one of the good guys." she said.

"Then why do you wear their armor and technology?" the man demanded.

Mitsuki shook her head as she walked toward the couch. "Relics of an old life." she replied. As she reached the couch and knelt down Enzeru and the others landed in the room as well and the four adult's faces brightened instantly. The four Humans were easily identifible and if the girl in the armor was with them then she was what she said she was. "He's got Zinion's." Mitsuki said gazing into his eyes.

"Zinion's?" Yamcha asked gazing at her intently. He still didn't like her. "We've seen people like this before, what's 'Zinion's'?"

"The Sai-jin version of the flu." Mitsuki replied fishing a capsule out of a pouch tied to her waist. "Most Humans are completely immune to it but there are those who it hits like a ton of bricks. If it's not treated it's always fatal." She depressed the button on the capsule and dropped it onto the ground. A moment later she had a small med kit opened beside her.

"Can... can you save my brother?" the girl asked nervously.

Mitsuki didn't say anything as she dug through the kit and took out a syringe. She then fished out a couple of medicines, mixed them, and filled the syringe with the mixture. "Krillin, Yamcha, you'll need to hold him down." she said looking back. The two came around and one held his feet while the other his arms. "Enzeru, hold his head still." her sister nodded and moved over to hold the boy's head in place.

Mitsuki bit her lip and looked over to the others. "The bacteria settles in the brain." she explained. "The fastest way to get rid of it is a direct injection into the brain. Without the proper equipment that's dangerous, on the field like this the best bet is to inject him through the eye." she shook her head slowly. "He'll lose all vision through that eye afterwards, and if the disease is far enough along.... he may already be partly blind in his other eye."

"Just... save him. Please." the man asked.

Mitsuki nodded and looked up to Enzeru. She nodded as well and Mitsuki moved the syringe up to his left eye. After a moment to steady her hand she pushed the needle down in and the boy screamed and tried to thrash but the hands holding him were firm and unmoving. Once the needle was in far enough in, Mitsuki slowly began the injection. When she pulled the needle out again the boy's left eye had gone from having a blue iris to being solid white. He laid there screaming for a moment longer and then began to calm down as he slowly drifted to sleep.

"I mixed in a sedative as well." Mitsuki explained. "It's better if he sleeps through this part, it's extreamly painful..." she reached up with one hand and massaged her temple for a moment. Then she packed up the med kit again and stood. The five of them talked with the other three for a moment before leaving and going in search of more injured and sick.


	11. Recovery

A/N: I've decided to break the story into parts. This wont change how it's updated or anything like that, it'll all still go under the same story and the chapters will still be numbered without restarting (i.e. Part Two: Chapter 1 wont happen) and everything. This is just to make a few things easier on me in the organizing and planning of things. So Chapter One has already been updated with the title of the first part which is **The Masters** since they're the general focus despite the other events of the past ten chapters. Just thought I'd let you all know so that when you see Part Two you wont be confused.

Also, Chapter One has been changed into a Song Fic style. These will show up now and again throughout TDOY. When I know the artist that sings the song whose lyrics I'm using I'll list that, otherwise I'll just not mention that. It's just a style/effect thing. You may want to listen to the actual song for that chapter while reading it for added effect even, but that's up to you. Anyway, on we go!

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_Chapter Eleven - Recovery_

Raditz slammed into the ground hard. As he pulled himself out of the crater he was panting heavily. Floating a good twenty yards in the sky Pikkon was in similar condition. Groaning he charged a ball of energy in his right palm and then launched it up at Pikkon. As the attack was let loose there was a flash of gold from Raditz and he reverted to normal and then fell back onto his butt. Pikkon managed to just dodge the attack, much to Raditz's distaste. "Alright, that's enough!" Shin called.

Pikkon nodded and landed as Raditz laid down and stared up at the sky breathing hard. Even if he was dead that had been a really tiring battle. "Hmph. Pathetic." Bardock said from where he stood as he crossed his arms.

"I'd like to see you do better." Raditz shot back painfully.

Bardock smirked and cracked his neck. "If he were still in good shape, I would." the Sai-jin replied. Raditz, Daimao, and Nappa all looked at him like he was crazy. Even the two Kai's gave him an intrigued look.

"I think I can do that much." Shin said. He moved over to Pikkon and held out his hands. In a matter of seconds the dead alien was back to full power once more. "There. Now, I'd be interested to see what you can do Bardock. I was under the assumption you were at your maximum power."

Bardock stepped forward as Raditz moved slowly and painfully to the side. "Well, you assumed wrong." he said with a smirk. He braced his legs, hunched over, clenched his fists, and let out a yell. The ground began to shake, and then soon the entirety of the Grand Kai's world trembled with the power. Yet Shin felt no building strength from Bardock. And then the wave of power generated wind washed across the world. Rocks and dirt flew into the air as a tornado of teal power exploded about Bardock.

Shin realized what Bardock was doing at this point, he was pulling every last ounce of energy he possesed up to the surface. Under normal circumstances he would expect a single attack from the Sai-jin at the maximum amount of power he could muster. But he had a feeling the Sai-jin was attempting something else with this. After a moment Bardock's full power was swirling about his body, his aura almost like a teal colored sun. The Sai-jin's determined expression shifted to one of pride and arrogance. "And now... HELL FIRE!" he roared.

His aura rippled and flashed, pulsed and flared, and began to change. The teal color faded as a flame red color exploded forth. His aura now resembled fire in more than just color but in nature too. It licked across his body and danced around him like intense flame. Specks of blue, white, black, yellow, and orange drifted up from him as well, like the burning embers of a flame. His muscles built up in size and bulged, his eyes turned red as he let out a roar and threw his head back. Shin understood at that point as the Sai-jin's power began to swell larger and larger.

Bardock had tapped directly into the might of the Oozaru. While the strength of the Oozaru did run through his body constantly the normal Sai-jin form could not contain the Oozaru's full might. Even the actual Oozaru form was inadequate at managing that immense a power. The Oozaru was the most powerful force the universe had ever created, far beyond what the Sai-jins truly understood of it. What Bardock had done was create an improvised shift to an Oozaru like form. And Shin could tell that his improvised state was more adequate at managing the Oozaru might than the actual form of the older Sai-jins. It was evident in the swelling of his powers as it he'd already become more than 10 times stronger.

As Shin watched he wondered if perhaps Bardock had found a shortcut to the full Oozaru might. A way to by-pass the four levels of Super Sai-jin and go straight to the ultimate of Sai-jin power, the True Oozaru, the Super Oozaru. But it was not the case as his power leveled off once more, at a level 20 times that of his normal strength. His red eyes lowered to gaze at Pikkon as he smirked, a small fang emerging as he did. He flexed his muscles as he reached up and popped his neck once more. It was Nappa that broke the silence as he stared at Bardock. "H-how... Bardock's stronger than Raditz is as a Super Sai-jin!"

Bardock grinned. "Allow me to introduce you to the Hell Fire technique." Bardock rasped, his voice a few octaves deeper than normal. "So named because of the aura, and it's place of inception." The Sai-jin's grin became a smirk. "I could feel a power sleeping deep within me and assumed I was near to attaining my own Super Sai-jin transformation. After a year of trying to break through via various ways I developed this little ability. But, there's more to this than meets the eye."

Pikkon raised an eyebrow at that. He was very interested in what Bardock meant by this. The Grand Kai, however, was more interested in how such a skill could go by undetected by him. Especially since it put Bardock's power near that of the Supreme Kai's. In fact, it put him stronger than Pikkon now. The two dead warriors slipped into combat positions, and then vanished.

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Enzeru moved down over the water as she flew, the others behind her. They'd made five stops so far and had been able to save seven people. And had lost two. Enzeru didn't like those numbers, she'd have prefered nine saved and none lost. But she knew that, considering the situation, it was a good outcome. She turned her head a bit to look at Mitsuki as the two continued their conversation. "So it was this Eternal Dragon thing that made the four of you and the Masters Immortal?" she asked.

Enzeru shook her head. "Not Immortal. We and they can die. We have Eternal Youth. None of us will age and the Masters seem to stop aging at around 20 or so."

Mitsuki nodded. "Why not just wish them gone?"

It was Tien that answered. "The Dragon has limits to it's powers. It cannot grant a wish beyond the power of it's creator, Kami. Each wish it grants requires energy, if the wish takes more than Kami has then it can't be granted."

"So making yourselves stronger is out of the realm of possibility as well?" Mitsuki asked. Tien nodded. She flew in silence for a moment thinking. "What about wishing to be Sai-jin? Or Half Sai-jin? You might have the chance to catch up to them that way..."

"And become one of them?" Yamcha asked hotly. "No way in hell."

Enzeru glanced back at him and sighed. "Beyond that, it's beyond the Dragon's powers as well. We tried it once." She veered to the right a bit as the power she'd been searching for grazed her senses. "We've worked through all the options and, sadly, are left with only our current course. The odds are against us but we do have a chance to win."

They flew in silence for the last couple miles as a small island barely large enough for them all to land on came into view. Enzeru increased her speed a bit, the others doing the same, and a moment later they were standing on the small land mass. It was barren save for three trees and a large rock in the center. Tien moved over to one of the trees and reached inside a hole in the trunk. A second later the large stone began to move to the side and reveal an opening in the ground that went straight down. The hole was just large enough for one person to pass through.

As the stone locked into place Krillin dropped down the opening followed by Yamcha, Tien, Mitsuki, and then Enzeru. Mitsuki figured the drop was about a fifty yards as her feet touched down on the rock floor. She raised an eyebrow at the sight before her. They were in a fair sized cave with a house only a few feet away from them. A house Mitsuki recognized from the reports on Earth. Kame House. Home of Master Roshi. The woman turned as her sister stepped up beside her. "A small word of warning, Roshi's... Well..."

Krillin looked back at the two of them. "He's an old pervert." the short Human said. "He's learned his lesson around Enzeru..." he laughed slightly. "But you're new so expect to be groped."

Yamcha nodded. "Hence why we had Rei stay behind at the base. Meeting Roshi is the last thing that girl needs." he said as he walked up onto the front porch. As he did Mitsuki reached up and activated her scouter out of habit. A second later, aside from those with her, it listed two powers. One at 2, and one at 351. As she followed the others inside she was able to place one of the power readings to people. The level of 2 belonged to a red haired woman who appeared to be in her thirties. What Mitsuki found interesting was the large man in the room with her that had no reading.

"Hey Sno, Eighter." Enzeru said waving to them as she began up the stairs. Tien, Krillin, and Yamcha all took seats but Mitsuki just leaned back against the wall.

"So, who's the new girl?" Sno asked curiously. She'd not seen Enzeru and the others bring anyone else down with them before, and certainly not someone in Imperial Armor and wearing a scouter.

"Oh, I'm Mitsuki." she said walking over and holding out a hand which Sno shook. "I'm Enzeru's sister... or half sister anyway."

"Oh!" Sno cried excitedly. "Did you hear that Eighter? Enzeru finally found her!"

"Yeah, that's great news." the large man said smiling.

Mitsuki looked over at him for a moment before speaking. "Mind if... I ask why..."

"Oh, why I don't have a power level?" Eighter asked. Mitsuki nodded. "Well, I'm an Android."

"I... I thought that all the Androids were Masters?"

Sno shook her head. "Eighter here was an early design, from way back when I was still a little kid. He's not like the others, he doesn't like hurting people." Krillin leaned back into the chair he was in and tilted his head up to look at the ceiling. "Oh, Krillin..." Sno started apologetically. "I didn't..."

"No, it's okay." he said. "It's been over twenty years." He sighed and closed his eyes. _"She told me why she had to go... and she was right. They could have tracked her to us, they could have just set off the bomb inside of her and blown us all up, they could have done so many different things. Everyone's better off this way... but... then, why does it still feel like it was the wrong choice?"_

"Hello again boys!" a loud voice called from the stairs as Roshi emerged into the room. "Ooooooh, and who's the pretty lady?"

There was a crack as Enzeru's hand smacked the back of his head. "That would be my sister Mitsuki." she said stepping out from behind him. "Like I said, try and keep your hands to yourself."

"Right, right..." he said rubbing his head. "Anyway, I'd offer you guys something to eat but Launch isn't back from the shopping yet. She has to go further and further every time to find a place to shop..."

Tien stood and moved over to Roshi as he dug a metal case out from under his shirt and handed them over. "Here are the Dragonballs. Enzeru and I thought it would be better to leave them here for now, in case we can't get here when the time comes. The four of you can summon Shenron and make the wish."

"Why wouldn't you be able to get here?" Sno asked. "And what's going on, why bring them here now?"

"Frieza's coming." Yamcha said. "He'll be here in a week to destroy the planet."

"What?"

Tien nodded. "Ya, so we're preparing to make the move. I'm not sure if we'll be able to get here fast enough after realizing Freiza's here to summon Shenron ourselves. It'll be up to you guys."

"Don't worry Tien." Eighter said. "We'll make sure the wish is made in time."

"Eighter's right." Sno said, a smile gracing her face for the first time in days. "You leave everything to us."

"Thanks." said Enzeru. "The planet is going to be empty of Imperial soldiers by the time Frieza arrives, hell, they'll be gone by nightfall tomorrow, so just wish all life on Earth to New Earth."

"Got it." Sno said with a nod.

The serious moment was shattered a second later by a loud crack. Everyone turned to see Mitsuki's fist buried in Roshi's stomach, the old master's hand's still reaching out, one on her butt and one on her breasts. A second later he moved back holding his stomach. As the gathering watched him they began to smile and then laugh outright. Some things just never changed.

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Marron looked down at the head resting in her lap and was still having trouble grasping everything that had happened. That morning when she'd gotten up... she'd been a normal citizen of the Empire. Now... well, now Bra had just cried herself to sleep and was using her lap as her pillow. She'd never expected to actually meet one of the Masters let alone try and save them or try and comfort one of them. Her original feelings of them being nothing but heartless monsters had faded considerably since she'd arrived in the med bay.

Her head jerked up from looking at Bra to look across at the Regen Tank Trunks was in as it began to beep. At first she was worried that it was a warning that something was wrong but then she saw that the tank began to drain. It was over, the poison had been flushed from his system. She reached down and shook Bra's shoulder gently for a moment and the girl's eyes opened slowly. However, once she saw the tank draining she was up and moving over to it quickly to stand with 18 and Bulma who were standing around it as well. Vegeta had left a few mintues before.

As the tank opened Bra didn't even give her brother the chance to move and just dove in wrapping her arms around him. Marron stayed were she was and sat in silence as both Bulma and Bra pulled Trunks out of the tank hugging him. 18 was smiling as she glanced back at Marron and the girl saw the relief in her mother's eyes. As she stood she heard Trunks trying to get his family off him and figure out what happened.

"Your stupidity happened." Vegeta said as he entered the room again scowling at Trunks.

"What?"

"The Spear woman, she had the Kiss of Death poison on her lips. And now, because of your stupidity, Goten is dead."

"Wh-what?!" Trunks cried, his eyes widening in shock as his hands balled into fists.

Vegeta glanced toward Marron. "You have her to thank that you're even still here." he said before turning his gaze back to his son. "Now, follow me." he nearly growled. Trunks didn't like the sound of his voice and followed without a word, though he did cast a glance toward Marron.

After the King and Prince had left Bulma and Bra soon followed, the younger girl casting a glance back into the room as she left. 18 sighed and walked over to her daughter. "Thank-you." she said placing a hand on her shoulder. "I already lost your father years ago... losing Trunks too..." Marron just nodded. The Android sighed again as she ran a hand through her hair. "I'd also say you pretty much insured your safety too. Vegeta's an arrogant egotistical bastard but he's got an odd sense of honor too. He wont harm you now that you've saved his son."

"That's good to know..." Marron said swallowing. "So... where do I go from here?" she asked. "I mean, we really haven't had the chance to talk about that. I...I really don't want to go back to my old life now. It seems so small and trivial."

18 nodded as she led her daughter out of the Med Bay and through the halls. "I know that feeling. It's why I chose to let Gero turn me into a Cyborg. Well, Android, since he insists on only using one classificiation for all his 'numbered designs'. He's as egotistical and arrogant as Vegeta."

"Do you..." Marron began looking over to her mother. "Do you remember before..."

"Before I became what I am now? Not really." 18 said with a touch of sadness and regret in her voice. "I only know that my brother and I were nineteen when we volunteered for the procedure. Gero has detailed background files on both of us but I've never looked. I'm not that person anymore, whoever she was. It was an entirely different life."

"Don't you ever wonder about your past, where you came from? After I found out I was adopted it was almost all I could think about."

"Where you came from doesn't define who you are. And when it's something you can't even remember, something that doesn't influence your current life, then knowing doesn't do anything. Besides, I don't like the idea of looking in at my life from the outside."

Marron was about to say something but then realized what her mother had meant. If she did go back and look and she found a life better than the one she had now... "I think I get it."

"Maybe... some day." 18 said softly. "When it no longer matters." Marron wondered what she meant by that but didn't say anything as the two continued their walk back to 18's room.

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Cell smirked as he spied Turles resting against a tree, his eyes closed. He could see a small cave opening in the ground near him and reaching out his senses he could feel Slug's supressed energy down below. _"How perfect."_ he thought smirking more. _"They find one of the temples here on my world and save me all the work. Heh, and even divided in four as I am now, with my power divded such as well, I'm still stronger than these two."_

He watched in silence as he contemplated what to do next. He could just move in and kill Turles before the rouge Sai-jin even knew anything was coming. But that would alert Slug and he might escape with whatever was down there... No, he'd wait for Slug to come back up with whatever it was. The Biodroid took a seat within the thick brush and began to wait. He didn't have to wait long, however, as Slug's power soon flared up slightly and the Namek emerged from the opening a moment later.

Cell smirked as he saw a star shaped blood red crystal gripped in Slug's hand. He wasn't sure what it was or what it was for but that didn't really matter to him. This would be a chance to show these Changelings how it was done. He'd kill Turles and Slug both and take that crystal for Gero to study. Then if the Human's wanted it they'd have to get through the Masters to get it. He was about to stand and make his move when he spied a man in white armor and wearing a white helmet emerge from the trees and enter the clearing as well.

"Lord Slug, Commander Turles!" he called running up.

Slug turned to scowl at him as Turles raised his head and yawned stretching. "What is it?" the Sai-jin asked.

"We intercepted communications from Planet Frieza. Tao was just there, he and another Namek named Nail have escaped Frieza's force and are in space once more. It seems all the pod bays were sabotaged and no one can launch to pursue them."

Slug smirked. "That Human may be weak but his mind is sharper than Gero's I'd say. He's a tactical genious."

"What do you think he was after on Planet Frieza? Isn't that a bit risky?"

Slug snorted. "And being here isn't?" He held the crystal up and gazed through it. "Though coming here was unavoidable. Now we just need the four artifacts Tao has and we'll be set, they'll lead us to the Ancient's Homeworld and the final piece. As for the Human... No doubt he was after information. Palace computers have full access to the Imperial Network. Why do you think I sent Shadow into Cell's Palace?"

Cell scowled. There was an intruder in his palace and he didn't know about it!? Turles stood and brushed himself off. "Ya, true. Last time we were on Saiya their computers came in handy." The Sai-jin reached up and adjusted something around his neck and then suddenly growled. "Damn, this thing is annoying."

"Deal with it." Slug said frowning. "Let's get back to the ship before someone spots us."

"To late." Cell said emerging into the clearing. The armored man turned and ran instantly leaving only the three of them. "Now, you'll hand over the rock..."

"Not on your life." Slug said turning around casually. "Turles, deal with him, I'm going back to the ship." With that Slug began to walk away.

Cell cracked up laughing. "That weakling Sai-jin, deal with me? Ha, that's a laugh!"

Turles grinned. "We'll see about that!" he said reaching up and touching the collar like device around his neck. Cell's eyes widened in shock as Turles's power jumped up quickly. Suddenly a golden aura flared around him savagely blowing his black hair straight up as his muscles bulked up some and his eyes turned yellow. At first the Biodroid thought he was becoming a Super Sai-jin but that was the extent of the changes and it was obvious he wasn't.

"What the hell!?"

"Our latest tecnology." Turles replied cracking his neck. "A Ki Amplifier. Now, how about I demonstrate how it works?" With a crack and flash of gold he surged at Cell and smashed his elbow into the Master's face. Faster than the Biodroid could follow Turles landed several dozen blows and then kicked him hard in the chest knocking him through the trees and into the distance. With a smirk the Sai-jin touched the collar again and returned to normal before following after Slug.

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Gero stopped just outside the training area and watched the sparring match that was going on. Well, no. It was far from a spar. Gero could see the blue energy sparking around Prince Trunks's aura indicating he was at level two. Meanwhile his father was only at the first level, though he was still more than twice the other's power. Vegeta was moving quickly and in complete control of the fight. The younger Sai-jin was panting and sweating from the effort of trying to keep up, his power already a third lower than his maximum.

Vegeta turned around and faced Trunks, a fierce scowl on his face. "You're in worse shape than I'd thought!" he cried crossing his arms over his chest. "You can't even keep up with me!"

Trunks growled and glared across at his father. It wasn't actually his father he was angry at though, it was the Spear woman, and he couldn't wait to get her alone down in the holding cells again later. She'd pay for what she'd done. Nearly killing him, killing Goten, and for bringing his father down on him like this. With a cry he thrust his arms out and fired a stream of golden energy at his father. Vegeta merely raised his arms and let it slam into him. When the dust cleared he still floated there scowling.

Gero didn't even see him move. All he heard was the loud crack of Vegeta burying his fist in Trunks's stomach and then the young Prince fell out of Super Sai-jin and collapsed to the ground unconcious. "Pathetic." Vegeta growled landing and powering down. _"It's a pity that a Sai-jin losses the Zenkai power increases when they become Super Sai-jins, otherwise I'd just keep pounding on you until you were worthy of being the Sai-jin Prince."_

"Master Vegeta." Gero said entering the room.

"What is it?" the Sai-jin asked without turning.

"That pod on Geozan 7, we know who's inside now. It's Brolly."

"What!" Vegeta cried turning at last. "How!"

"We'll have to ask him once he's been restored. He'll be here in about three months time."

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A loud crack resounded across the Grand Kai's world as Pikkon slammed into the ground hard. Bardock floated high in the air above the planet panting heavily and swaying unsteadly in the air. Pikkon began to pull himself out of the small crater his impact had created but Bardock surged down quickly and jammed his fist down into the green warrior's stomach with another resounding crack. Pikkon's eyes widened at the blow and then he slipped into unconciousness.

Bardock took a step back from the fallen warrior before losing his balance and falling over backward. As he fell toward the ground his eyes closed and his aura faded into nothing. By the time he landed with a dull thud his aura was gone and he was unconcious. Those gathered watched on in silence for a moment. It was the Grand Kai, as he raised a hand to his chin, that broke the silence. "How did he develope a skill such as that without my noticing?" he wondered.

"Perhaps it was the first time he made full use of it." Shin replied after a moment. "It seemed to be quite taxing on his body and I could tell it shifted in pattern twice during the battle. Like he was still adjusting how it worked as he fought." Shin moved over and healed Pikkon's body before doing the same to Bardock. As the Sai-jin stood, a grin plastered on his face, Shin felt they had an even better chance at defeating the Masters now. "Bardock... do you think you could teach someone else that technique?"

Bardock raised an eyebrow. "I think I could, but it will only work for a Sai-jin. You said we would be training a group of Humans." Shin merely continued to smile.


	12. Into Oblivion

A/N: For those that don't know I posted, quite some time ago, the lemon scene between Trunks and Android 18 up on AFFnet. (Don't know the url then just google for it.) Now, they're not up yet, as they've not been written yet, but a number of other lemon's have taken place between the end of Chapter 11 and the start of this Chapter (as a week of time has been skipped over). They, too, shall go on AFFnet once written under the pen name TheUnholyAlliance (since my Fiancee helps with them ).

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**Part Two: Clash of the Titans**

_Chapter Twelve - Into Oblivion_

The wind blew cold and bitting, kicking up the snow that lay upon the ground and swirling it around the two forms laying atop the cold white powder. The howl of the wind echoed off the nearby mountains and rattled the trees. One of the forms upon the ground stirred slowly. He shifted and slowly opened his eyes before pulling himself into a sitting position. His thick blue vest was torn and nearly falling off as he reached a hand up to his head and rubbed it. _"Ugh... I feel like I was hit by a freight train. What happ..."_ His eyes widened suddenly as he remembered the fight against Kakkarotto. 

No. Not a fight. A massacre. The World Government had mounted one last assualt against the young man that had more power than seemingly possible. They'd asked Tien to head up their forces and he'd agreed. He and Chaotzu had... "Chaotzu!" he called out looking around as he remembered his friend. "Chaotzu!" The weak and weary Human pulled himself up out of the snow and looked around for his small friend. The blowing wind shifted the snow slightly and Tien caught a glimpse of green.

He moved through the snow quickly, flashes of that terrible battle tearing through his mind. Nothing had worked. The guns, the new energy weapons that had been developed, the missle... Tien cast his gaze skyward and saw the dark clouds laced with green dust. The last resort attack. A nuclear missle. Despite the fact that it was impossible Kakkarotto had taken the missle to the chest and simply shrugged off the explosion that had created the mile deep canyon Tien was now inside of.

Turning his eyes back down again he came to stop. There, laying part in and part out of the snow, was the small form of his long time friend. Tien could feel it as he stood there, Chaotzu was gone. As he closed his eyes more flashes of the battle played across his eyelids. Moments after the missle had gone off and the soldiers had begun to cheer the dust cloud had been shattered by a rush of golden light. The departing dust had revealed a much different Kakkarotto than before, a much stronger one. And then came the rain of fire... the golden orbs of Ki had been launched randomly about the entire area. Only a few lucky trees had managed to survive.

Tien dropped to his knees and reached out his mind. _"Nothing..."_ he thought. _"I can't sense anything... anything at all. But... There has to be someone! Somone somewhere!"_ He stretched his senses out even further and recoiled a moment later at the wash of power that pounded into him. Kakkarotto was still out there just as strong as ever. Tien opened his eyes and gazed down at his friend's lifeless body. "Chatozu... I'm sorry Chaotzu. I know I promised to protect you... but he's just too much for me..."

He clenched his hands into fists crushing the snow beneath them as he did. "No! I wont just give up! I wont let all these deaths be for nothing! I wont let Chaotzu's death be for nothing! I'll find a way to stop him..." Slowly he climbed back to his feet and lifted up the body of Chaotzu. He cast a glance toward where he could still sense Kakkarotto and a few hundred other powers before flying off in the other direction.

It had only taken him a few moments to get beyond the canyon and a few more moments to get beyond the snow. He used what energy he had left to blast out a small grave and buried his friend, eyes shut tightly. Once he was completely buried Tien stood. For a long moment he couldn't move. He probably would have stayed that way forever if he hadn't passed out.

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He woke up in a soft bed days later, a young woman tending to his injuries. That's when he met Yamcha and Krillin and that had been the birth of the new Human Resistance. It had taken him four weeks to completely recover from his injuries. Well, the physical ones at least. During that time a new power had arrived on Earth. A being that called him self Daimao. Tien had sensed that this Daimao was stronger even than Kakkarotto. At least, stronger than normal Kakkarotto. But the golden version... 

Before he was even fully healed word reached them that the green creature had been killed in battle against the golden Kakkarotto. Rumors had spread for years that Kakkarotto was some sort of fallen god. Everyone had been certain that he'd eventually kill every last person on Earth. Tien wasn't going to wait for his turn and had gone to challenge him once more. Just over six weeks after their last battle he landed outside Kakkarotto's palace atop Fire Mountain.

The battle flashed through his mind quickly. None of his attempts to attack Kakkarotto had done a thing. The young man hadn't even tried to dodge, the blows didn't even phase him in the least. After another kick to the head that did nothing he pulled back and landed staring in disbelief at the small young man before him. "Is that the best you have?" Kakkarotto asked frowning and crossing his arms.

Tien took to the air instantly. "No. I have something else yet." he said defiantly. He drifted up a good hundred yards before stoping and placing his hands before him in a triangle shape. Through the opening between them he sighted in his target and fired his attack. "Tri-beam!" Golden energy sparked within his hands and then surged down at Kakkarotto. The blast impacted and exploded savagely and Tien thought... hoped... that it had worked. But the clearing dust said otherwise as Kakkarotto still scowled up at him standing atop a lone pillar of rock, the rest having been pulverized by the attack.

"Alright then! Take my best shot!" Tien called down. Golden energy surged into the space between his hands and began to gather quickly. The viens across his body rippled and pulsed as his heart worked furiously. His muscles rippled with the power he was summoning from deep within himself and from the very air about him. He floated there straining and focusing his attack for what seemed to him like an eternity, constantly looking for Kakkarotto to grow tired of waiting and attack him.

Finally it finished charging. "Here goes! Super Tri-beam!" he roared. His entire body tensed and flashed a bright gold. The energy exploded forth from between his hands at such a force that it recoiled him another twenty yards into the air as it surged downward. As the attack neared him Kakkarotto's scowl deepend. A second later it slammed into him and exploded violently sending shockwaves of power washing out in every direction. The backwash of energy obliterated Fire Mountain and Kakkarotto's castle.

Tien drifted back and forth in the air barely able to stay up. He'd not even expected to survive after launching that attack, apparently he'd subconciously held back just enough of his energy to keep himself alive. Panting he watched the dust clear as he floated down toward the ground. As his feet touched the rock he smiled lightly. The dust was gone and so was Kakkarotto. All that remained was a hole nearly thirty yards across. And then his eyes widened in shock as Kakkarotto floated back up from within the hole.

His armor that he always wore was cracked in several places, the shoulder pads completely destroyed. There were cuts and gashes on his arms and one on his cheek. But other than that he looked little worse for the wear. Tien saw him tense for a moment and then there was flash of gold.

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Tien sat bolt upright in his bed clutching his bed sheets to him, breathing hard, and soaked in sweat. He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder and relaxed some as Enzeru sat up beside him. "Are you okay?" she asked worriedly. 

He nodded slowly. "I'm okay. Just... the dream came back again." He closed his eyes as he reached up and massaged his temples. "That's every night this week now."

"You're under a lot of pressure." Enzeru said as she slipped around to sit behind him. "It's probably stressing you out and causing the dream to keep coming back." She placed her hands on his shoulders right where they connected to his neck and began to massage him. "Everything will be okay though, so you can just relax now."

Tien sighed and leaned back into her hands. "I still don't know why I'm even here now." he said after a moment. "After my last attack... I didn't even have the energy left to stay conscious. I saw him transform and then blacked out. So... why? Why didn't he kill me? He should ha..."

Enzeru kissed the back of his head. "I don't know. Why did he suddenly disappear for several years after that fight? Something obviously happened." She sighed as she stopped rubbing his neck and just wrapped her arms around him resting her head on his shoulder. "It's not really important though. What is important is that you're here now. No more of this crazy talk from you, ok? I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have you."

"Ya, I suppose you're right." he said.

She closed her eyes as she leaned against him. "I'm not going to let you go, and I'm not going to leave you behind either. You stay alive and I'll do the same, deal?"

Tien managed to smile lightly. "It's a deal."

Enzeru was about to say more when a loud knocking sounded from their bedroom door. Reluctantly she pulled away from Tien and slipped a nighty on to cover herself up with as she climbed off the bed. Her bare feet made soft thumping sounds as she moved across the wood floor to the door which creaked as she opened it. Standing in the doorway was her sister. "What is it Mitsuki?"

"It's Frieza." she said. "He's here. The satellites picked up his ship about ten minutes ago. He should be entering orbit in less than five minutes. And then..."

"He'll be able to attack." Tien said climbing out of bed and pulling on some clothes. "Has Roshi been called?"

Mitsuki nodded. "Yamcha called him as soon as we picked up the ship. There's no way we'll get out there before Frieza attacks."

"That's okay." Enzeru said. "Roshi, Launch, Eighter, and Sno can manage on their own. They know how to summon Shenron and they know the wish. We'll be needed here anyway, to calm everyone down. Not everyone knows about the wish so there will definately be panic when they see Frieza's attack coming."

"Speaking of which, we may need to try and hold it off." Tien said. "Not for long, but I'd rather be certain the wish was made before we let the attack hit." Enzeru nodded and the three of them moved outside. Enzeru, Tien, Krillin, Yamcha, and Mitsuki all stood atop the tallest building that still stood in the city watching the clear night sky. The stars sparkled silently portraying a sense of calm in the universe, but the five of them knew it was only an illusion. Out there was just like on Earth, desolate and dying.

They could feel Freiza nearing them, and the large numbers of powers on his ship with him. Tien was tempted to attack instead of wait, he figured he could take out Frieza's ship with relative ease. Not that it'd take out Frieza. Such a tactic might work against the Sai-jins but not the Androids or Changelings. None of them needed to breathe. Tien scowled as he felt the powers slowing. His face softened a moment later as Enzeru rested a hand on his shoulder.

"So, we're sure this is where the attack will come to?" Mitsuki asked.

Krillin nodded. "We know Frieza, he'll aim for us. That's why we've raised our powers to the max, and why Roshi is on the other side of the planet. Frieza wont even see that Shenron was summoned."

"This is it!" Enzeru called readying herself. High above them in the sky they could see a spark of light forming and feel the building of energy.

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Frieza watched through the glass in his command room as the Earth neared. "Soon... soon you shall all be dead!" he hissed crushing a glass in his hands. "No more weakling Humans scurrying about causing problems, and no more chance for Hybrids! Filthy creatures." His tail lashed out and smashed through his chair in agitation. "Father should have dealt with Vegeta when we first met those Sai-jins... and Kakkarotto should have wiped out the Humans." 

Frieza smirked as he thought about the way things would be if that had happened. "Yes, then we would have taken him out when we found him. And WE would be the sole rulers of the universe. No Androids and no Sai-jins giving me orders, I would be the supreme Master." His face scrunched up as he remembered his brother. He'd been stronger than Cooler when they'd first met the Sai-jins... and then Cooler had attained his fifth form a few years later. "Rotten ingrate." he muttered.

He turned as the door to the room opened and Pandora entered once more. "Sir, we've entered orbit now."

"Good." Frieza said smirking. Turning he walked from the room leaving her staring out the window at the blue planet below them. After a moment she closed her eyes and left.

It took Frieza a moment to move through the halls of his ship and reach the central pod docks. As he floated up through the opening ceiling he reached out his senses and zeroed in on the powers on Earth. It only took a moment for him to detect the Humans and smirk. "So, you're going to try and stand against me are you?" he asked softly. "Well then, I'll make this interesting..." He slowly raised his arm above his head holding one finger up in the air. There was a spark atop his finger tip and then the ball of red and black energy began to form.

The Changeling scowled down at the planet below him as he gathered the energy needed to destroy it. He could have made it quick, a shot straight through the planet's core would destroy it in a matter of seconds. But he was in a bad mood and a fast death was too good an end for the Humans. He'd make it slow. A strong enough energy bomb to destabolize the core but not obliterate it. They'd have a good five or ten mintues to watch their world tear apart around them and then it would be over.

The Ki orb above his head, between the Earth and it's moon, had swollen to massive size already, nearly a quarter the size of the Earth's moon. But still Frieza channeled energy into the attack. He raised an eyebrow in interest as several million dots of light appeared on the planet surface. "Well, what have we here?" he wondered. Seconds later the dots of light became streams of Ki surging toward him and his ship. "Ah yes, the Human's energy weapons! Ha! Those things couldn't even scratch the likes of Tao! They wont do a thing to me or my ship!" he laughed.

The energy streams slammed into Frieza's ship harmlessly or sped on past him to impact the moon. A few slammed into his growing Ki orb and were simply absorbed adding to it's power. After a few moments the rain of energy ended as the weapons overheated. Frieza smirked as the ball above his head reached half the size of the moon. "And now!" he called down happily, a psychotic look spreading across his face. "Off into oblivion with the lot of you!" He lowered his arm and pointed his finger toward the Earth, the large energy bomb moving and beginning it's descent toward the planet.

Down on Earth Enzeru had sent Mitsuki out to calm the city's population as Frieza's attack grew in size. The four Humans still standing atop the building readied as they felt the attack begin to near them, steadily looking larger and larger as it did. A moment later it was blotting out the entire sky. The four Humans glanced at each other and then surged up into the air. They could tell it wasn't as powerful as it could be, there was a lot of energy but it was scattered over a large distance reducing it's direct power. Working together they might be able to hold it off for a few minutes, maybe even deflect it completely, though it would exhaust them to do so. They could already hear the people panicking.

As they reached the massive attack they reached their arms out and caught it. At first it continued to drive them back without slowing but by the time their feet touched the top of the building again they were holding it back, but it was taking everything they had. "Focus... an attack." Tien managed. "Try.. and push... it off." The others nodded in response.

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Roshi set the phone down quietly. The other three in the house could tell by his sudden change in attitude that it was time. Frieza had arrived, the wish had to be made. Sno didn't say a word as she took the box off the shelf and walked from the house, Eighter, Roshi, and Launch right behind her. With a deep breath she lifted unsteadily into the air. She didn't fly much and wasn't as good at it as the other three. Slowly they drifted up to the opening and Sno touched the release as she passed it. 

The rock above them slid aside and they emerged into the daylight. They knew they didn't have much time and quickly set to work. Sno flipped open the box and withdrew the seven orbs from within and laid them out on the island. Then they stepped back from them and held their breath as Roshi spoke. "Arise Eternal Dragon! Come forth Shenron and grant our wish!"

The orbs began to glow fiercely, the sky darkened and lightning flashed. The blue haired Launch moved over with Sno to stand beside, and just behind, Eighter. The wind whipped up blowing their hair out behind them and ruffling their clothes as the glow from the seven orbs intensified. And then in an explosion of light Shenron began to surge into the sky. Roshi turned his gaze skyward watching the Dragon snake it's way up into the air, it's reflection dancing across his sunglasses.

A moment later the large green form of Shenron floated high in the air, his body snaking about through the darkened sky. The Eternal Dragon lowered his head toward the four people below him as Roshi felt Frieza begin to generate his attack on the opposite side of the Earth. **"Why have you summoned me?"** Shenron's voice boomed. **"Speak your wish now and it shall be so granted!"**

"Shenron!" Roshi called up. "Move all life on Earth to our new world! To New Earth!"

The Dragon growled and his body flexed in the air, his eyes glowing bright red. **"It..."** The Dragon paused for a moment, it's eyes narrowing slightly. Then, with a small grunt, he continued. **"It shall take a moment but it shall be done."** he boomed at last.

Roshi nodded and relaxed. Turning he looked into the distance to where he could clearly sense the others fighting against Frieza's Death Ball. And then he felt Sno's power blink out of his senses, then several others in the distance. One by one Humans and animals alike were vanishing from the Earth.

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Tien glanced to his left and saw Mitsuki flying up to join them, energy already gathered around her hands. She thrust her ams out as she reached the massive Ki ball and began to push her energy against it to help them push it off. Tien turned his attention back to deflecting the attack and began to force the energy from his hands as well, the other soon doing the same. He could feel the pressure lighten up after only a frew seconds and then smiled as he felt his feet lift off the roof once more. They were repelling Frieza's attack!

And then he felt the powers begin to vanish across the planet. "Yes! The wish has been made! Quickly, all of our energy, let's give Frieza a going away present!" Tien called before pouring on all his power. The other let out cries as they forced their energy out as well and the large attack began to reverse direction at a noticeable speed. Tien smirked as the attack moved further and further away.

Up in space, however, Frieza was not smirking. His scowl had deepened as he glared down at his attack. "They think they can repell MY attack!" he growled pointing two fingers down at the planet. "FINE! DEATH BEAM!" Purple energy sparked on his finger tips and then surged down punching through the Death Ball and tearing passed the startled Humans attempting to hold it off and then down through the Earth.

Frieza smirked as the Death Ball swelled and then exploded tearing a massive crater into the Earth's surface. A second later his Death Beam tore through the planet's core and the Earth exploded savagely flinging debris in every direction. "Good Riddance!"

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"There, he's been summoned. It's time." Shin said closing his eyes. It took a moment to contact Shenron, the Dragon wasn't from any realm the Kai's had Dominnion over and he had to push through a few barriers before he was heard. _"Shenron, this is the Supreme Kai. I have a request."_

**_"What is it?" _**the Dragon demanded gruffly.

_"Five of the people on that planet, Mitsuki, Yamcha, Krillin, Tien, and Enzeru. Can you send them here, to the Grand Kai's planet?"_

_**"It shall be done."**_

Shin nodded and let out a relieved sigh. "They shall be here shortly." he said turning to face the others once more. They all stood in silence for several moments and then felt five powers suddenly appear a few yards away from them. Shin turned to them as they looked around in wonder. "Hello. Allow me to introduce myself. I am the Supreme Kai, you may call me Shin."


	13. A Stirring in the Rubble

Sorry all of this is taking so long anymore. Things are hectic and my time to write hasn't been as often lately. On top of that, my intrest keeps changing from one work to the next every couple weeks. Plus, I've been addicted to FFX-2 and Xenosaga...

_Chapter Thirteen - A Stirring in the Rubble_

Tien looked at the man before him quite confused. The others were as well. "Supreme... Kai?" he asked. He glanced over to Enzeru and found her looking just as confused as him, and the others. "Where are we? How'd we get here?"

"This would be the Grand Kai's world." Shin said motioning back to him. "As for how you arrived here, instead of your expected destination, that would be my doing. I... pulled a few strings, if you will. I asked the Eternal Dragon to send you here instead of to New Earth."

"You had the.. but... how?" Enzeru asked confused. "And why?"

Shin nodded his head slowly and began to walk forward. The warriors from Earth watched as he walked slowly passed them and over to the edge of a cliff. He stopped there and moved his hands behind his back, a pose that reminded them greatly of Roshi. "The Masters have been a building and growing threat for a long time." he said after a moment of silence. "We saw them merely as a mortal matter for a long time. However, they soon surpassed even my power..."

"Mortal? Your power?" Krillin asked shaking his head. "I don't get it."

"We Kais..." Shin said glancing over his shoulder. "Are the gods of the universe. This here is Otherworld, the home of the dead. Above us some distance away is Heaven. Below us, beneath the clouds of gold, is the H.F.I.L..."

"Er, H.F.I.L.?" Yamcha asked.

It was a new voice that replied, chuckling softly. "Home for Infinite Losers." the Grand Kai said. "Named it myself, thought it suited considering the bulk of the occupants."

"Gee, thanks." Bardock muttered.

Shin smiled lightly. "Yes, well, regardless, it is where you will find the dead not allowed into Heaven but still reedemable and thusly, not in Hell."

"Dead? You keep saying that... so does that mean...?" Mitsuki asked.

Shin shook his head. "No. You are all very much alive." He sighed as he turned his gaze back out over the planet. "We saw no threat in the Masters, overlooked what they could become, and allowed things to progress to where they are now. And yet, a greater threat has been unleashed upon all of existance with the destruction of the Earth."

"A threat greater than the Masters?" Enzeru asked skeptical.

"Yes. Majin Buu. An unnatural creature of immense power created millions of years ago. A wizard gathered all the evil that he could, from his world and from Hell itself, and formed Buu. His power was vast and unending. Much like Gero's cyborg creations his energy is infinite. His power is well beyond anything this universe saw before, or has seen since. He was sealed away within the Earth. It's destruction has released him. It will take time for him to reform, having been dormant so long, and then he will resume the destruction of the universe.

"It is certain that Buu and the Masters will clash. That shall make your jobs easier, thinning out those you must defeat. But to get to that level of power will take you much time, effort, and determination." Shin turned to look at them again. "You five are the hope of the universe now. It is up to you to defeat the Masters, and possibly, Buu as well."

"Wait..." Krillin started. "If the Masters are stronger than you, and you're gods, then... how will we be able to stop them?"

"With intense training beyond anything you've ever experienced before." Shin said. "That is why you are here. You've been looking for a way to train yourselves better, harder, and this is it. I have arranged for you to learn from the greatest fighters the universe has to offer. That is, if you will accept."

"Accept?" Tien asked shaking his head. "No need to ask, where do we start?"

Shin smiled and nodded. "I expected as much. North Kai, they are yours."

The five warriors turned to see who Shin was talking to and saw a very short, blue, round, catfish like man standing where there had been no one a moment ago. "Normally I would require you to pass my entrance test. However, this matter is of such importance we shall forgo that. Come, place a hand on my back or shoulders, we must go to my world to begin your training."

The five looked at each other and then started toward the North Kai. They'd only gone a few steps when all of the space around them rippled with darkness for a second. "What was that?" Yamcha asked looking around.

"Buu has begun to reform." Shin said slowly. "I do not know how much time it will take..."

"Then we need to be getting to work." Enzeru said moving over to the North Kai and placing a hand on his shoulder. The other four joined her a moment later. And then, in the blink of an eye, they vanished.

"I need to learn how he does that..." Raditz said crossing his arms.

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Tao leaned back in the command chair and finally relaxed. They'd made it a good distance from the patrol ship now and there were no signs of any more ships around for a good distance. Nothing on the radar at all. Their chances of being followed, of Frieza even knowing which way they had gone, were now non existant. "We're in the clear again. I had to re-direct our course, however. Our new destination is Xentron."

"Xentron?" Nail asked. "What's there?"

"It's a fringe world. None of the Masters have jurisdiction as none care about it. It's mostly desert and almost no resources. A scout ship goes by once a year to check it's status but that's about it. It's a prime place for people such as us to disappear for a while. On top of that, it's got a very active black market."

Nail nodded. "So then, we have four of the artifacts, and this Slug has the other two?"

The Human sighed and nodded slowly. "Apparently so. The reports that came in earlier seem to suggest they found the last of the artifacts on Cell's world... I had hoped to beat them to it. Five to one is better than four to two. Now it's merely a matter of attaining their two artifacts."

"Perhaps a truce?" Nail said as he moved to gaze out the ship's windows. "A temporary alliance with Slug and Turles. We are after the same goal."

"I've thought of that, but I don't trust Slug. Once he and Turles have a set of Potara's they'll fuse. As things stand I am no match for either of them. Once merged... well..."

"Then, how do we get their artifacts off of them? We don't even know where they are."

"True. I'm hoping someone on Xentron has some information on them. Once we do find them... an attack to attain the artifacts is not a good plan. We would be beaten back with ease. We would need to find them, sneak on board, and steal the artifacts without notice. Locating them will be the most difficult element. So long as we keep our powers down they won't be able to tell us apart from their own crew."

"How long is this trip?"

"About five weeks. We'll be low on supplies, unless we get lucky along the way, but I'll just pick some up there. Until then, we simply wait."

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Yamcha looked around him in awe. One second they were on one planet and now they were on a very small planet. And... it was hard to stand! As soon as the world changed around them all five fighters fell flat on their asses. Still, that didn't stop Yamcha and Krillin from looking around, while the others tried to get back on their feet.

"Welcome to my planet." North Kai said. "The gravity here is ten times greater than that of the Earth. It will take you a little while to get used to it, but with your high powers it shouldn't take too long."

Enzeru pulled herself to her knees and, with a little effort, managed to stand. Tien pulled himself up a moment later followed by Krillin and Yamcha. The short Human had to help Mitsuki to her feet. "So, I guess the gravity is why you wanted to train us here? It's like wearing weights." Tien said.

North Kai nodded. "That is indeed part of the reason. I have two training partners here." He looked over the five before him that were now the last hope the universe had. "They'll help you adjust to the gravity faster, until that's done you can't train successfully. Once you've passed them I'll begin the actual training. I have several skills that I'm sure some of you can learn, possibly even master."

"So, who are these traning partners of yours?" Krillin asked looking around.

North Kai turned and faced his small house. "Bubbles! It's time we get started!" The five warriors watched on in confusion as a small monkey emerged from within the house. Before they could say anything the Kai turned to them again. "This is Bubbles. He'll be your first opponent. You must catch him to complete this phase of training. Don't underestimate his speed. He's spent a lot of time on Givindoa, five hundred times Earth gravity there, over the last twenty years. On this planet, with gravity this low... well, you'll have a time catching him, I can assure you."

"Five... hundred?" Yamcha asked in shock as he looked at the little monkey. That was very hard to swallow.

"Umm, no offense..." Krillin said turning to look at the Kai. "But are you really a Kai? I mean, you're not exactly that strong..."

North Kai nodded. "You are correct, I'm not entirely powerful by the current standards of the universe. Even though my power has grown quite a bit since the Masters became an obvious threat. There was a time, however, that only a handful of mortals matched my power. Even now the strongest mortal in Otherworld is Pikkon, and though he nears the power of the Supreme Kai, he is still not as strong even after two thousand years of training."

"But that's..." Mitsuki started. "I mean... if he's been training that long, what hope do we have of ever catching the Masters?"

"More than you might think." replied the Kai. "Allow me to inform you of the greatest secret of the universe. Human's are, in fact, one of the most powerful creatures in the universe."

"You're kidding, right?" Krillin asked looking around at their group. "We're the strongest Humans there are and we still don't match up to the Masters."

"That is true, yes. But secrets are not so easily unlocked as that. The powers of the Changelings and the Sai-jins lay open to them. Their paths are clear and distinct, with only a hidden trail here or there. Humans are different. Your paths are hidden in shadow, covered by fog, and blocked by unseen barriers. While other races can simply walk the road and access most or all of their power, Humans must search long and hard to find even the smallest fraction of what they have. On top of this they are also most adaptive creatures, easily adjusting to nearly any and all techniques. The only race more adaptive are the Sai-jins."

North Kai started pacing before them, gazing up at the five of them. "Have you ever stopped to wonder why it is that Hybrids have so much power?" he asked at last.

"Yeah." Tien said nodding. "It's always been something I've thought of, but I've never found a reason."

"The reason is simple. The Sai-jin DNA clears away some of the fog, reveals more of the path of Human power, and allows it to be reached with less work. Thus the already powerful Sai-jin is made even greater. Luckily for us the true power of the Human race still lays hidden far from the reach of the Hybrids, out of the way and ignored by their arrogance. It will be our salvation and their downfall.

"But we're getting far ahead of ourselves. Before we ever get to that point you must first walk the path. That path begins with Bubbles. Catch him or we go no further."

"Well, I'll go first." Yamcha said stretching. "Ugh, it's hard to move though..." He reached down and grabbed his boots but North Kai cleared his throat.

"The weights, leave them on, all of you. You need to move here as you did on Earth."

"Oh man..." Yamcha said with a frown. "Oh well. I guess here goes nothing..." The Human braced himself and readied. Bubbles just stood there sniffing his armpit. With a grunt the scarred warrior pushed off and leapt at the monkey. Coming down he was inches away when Bubbles just vanished and Yamcha ate dirt. "Wha, where'd he go?" he cried climbing to his feet. Hearing a sound from a few dozen yards away he turned and looked and saw the monkey standing there, pointing at him, and laughing.

"Oh, that does it monkey breath, you're mine." he said taking off across the small planet at full speed. Once more, however, Bubbles vanished in a blur of brown. This time, though, Yamcha was ready for it and adjusted his course to follow. He felt he was close and lunged at him again... and his face slammed into the lone tree of the small planet. He just laid there, his arms stretched out around the tree, his face really sore, and blinked a few times.

Meanwhile Krillin had fallen over laughing while Tien and Enzeru glanced at each other. "I can certainly see the benefit to this." Enzeru said at last. "Our speed will increase considerably before we can catch him... Well, let's see what I can do." She turned to face the small monkey and braced herself. She was about to take off at a run when she suddenly had a thought. If she flew she could move faster and wouldn't have to worry about face planting like Yamcha had done.

With that she smiled and pushed off with her energy flying only a foot above the planet, straight for the monkey. Bubbles let out a cry of shock as Enzeru bore down on him and took off quickly. The female pulled to a stop and took off in the opposite direction at top speed. A couple seconds later another loud screech sounded from Bubbles and then the monkey ran passed them all in a blur of brown. He passed by once, twice, three times... and on the fourth he came to a stop and started looking around him.

The other four were looking around as well, Enzeru had apparently disappeared. And then, suddenly, she appeared again coming from all four directions. Bubbles looked around him from one to the other not sure which way to go. Before he could make up his mind the four Enzeru's reached him, three of them vanishing and one of them grabbing him. "Ha! Got you!" she cheered grinning.

Yamcha groaned as he finally lifted himself off the ground and moved away from the tree rubbing his face. "Man, I eat tree and she catches the little furball like it's nothing."

"Don't feel so bad." North Kai said. "I figured she'd be the first, she's already faster than Bubbles. You three don't have too much work before you catch up..."

"It'll take me forever though." Mitsuki said with a sigh. "I don't know if I'll actually be any help. I'll just slow everyone else down."

_"How far from the truth you are."_ North Kai thought. _"You, more than any of the others, hold the best hope for us."_

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As the days passed the four warriors steadily made progress, their speed and power increasing, while the North Kai kept a close watch on them and the events in the mortal world. After the eventful day three weeks before the rest of the passing of time seemed slow and dull. Two transformation and a Master's death in a single day, and then nothing but the basic and mundane for three weeks.

The Eawpon woman, Spear, had lasted longer than the Kai had thought too. Which, sadly, was not a good thing for her. Trunks was probably the most vicious of the Sai-jins. She'd spent almost five days total in the Regen Tanks after nearly dying at Trunks' hands eight times. Finally, after almost three full weeks, her body just couldn't take it anymore and even the Regen Tanks couldn't fix what Trunks had done.

Vegeta decided to allow the other Humans in the universe to live, for now at least. He felt that, with the most dangerous ones gone, things were safer. The other Humans could be watched and managed easier than the ones of Earth. They were all parts of different groups overseen by other races at some level. A few new restrictions thought up by Bulma and the reins were pulled tighter, the chances of Hybrids reduced.

The energy of Majin Buu had continued to grow as well. He was close to restored now. Those in the mortal world could not sense or detect his presence in any way at the moment. Not until he was completely restored would they know he existed. And by then it would be far too late for them to stop his return. North Kai sighed as he turned from watching the universe. He wasn't sure who to cheer for in the coming battle. Majin Buu or the Masters... At least the Masters weren't intent on destroying the entirety of reality.

Looking over the warriors he considered the progress they'd made in the two weeks since they'd arrived on his planet. Tien had caught Bubbles the previous morning and then had set about training with Enzeru while they awaited the others to finish. Krillin was the closest but it would be a few more weeks yet before he would succeed in his task. Once he did, since it would be some time yet before Yamcha or Mitsuki caught the monkey, the Kai planned to call for Gregory.

He would begin to work with Enzeru, Tien, and Krillin while the other two finished up. He expected that Enzeru would take little more than a day, two at the most, to finish with Gregory. A week, tops, for Tien, and maybe three weeks for Krillin. By then Yamcha would have moved passed Bubbles as well. He would have to wait on Mitsuki then, to catch Bubbles and to hit Gregory, before he could proceed further.

He was about to address the warriors before him when electricity like black energy began to snake through the air all about them. "Hey, what... what's going on?" Krillin cried as he pulled to a stop in his pursuit of Bubbles and looked around.

"It's done." North Kai said turning his attention back to the rubble of the Earth. "Come, put your hands on my back, quickly."

The five warriors glanced at each other and then moved over to the short Kai and placed their hands on his back. They were used to using him as a way to observe the universe, he'd shown them that the others were safe on New Earth and had managed to get operations going for settling in even though they were confused as to what had happend to the five of them.

Those on the small planet watched with interest as the energy about them faded and pink energy replaced it in the mortal world, snaking toward the rubble of Earth. North Kai followed the course of the energy and soon an odd looking pulsing ball came into view. "Buu's Egg." North Kai said. "I can feel... Buu's power is building now."

"Unreal!" Yamcha cried in shock as he felt the climbing power. It shot passed his level, passed Enzeru's, passed King Cold, passed Frieza, passed Cell, and it just kept on climbing. "N-no way!" he cried as it finally stopped going up. He could feel the power washing over and through him. "That's just... that's not..."

"Impossible..." Enzeru breathed. "How could we ever hope to fight something like that?"

"It is do-able." North Kai said. "Hopefully though, Buu will take out most of the Masters making your job easier..."

The egg in the rubble pulsed faster and faster until it became a steady glow. And then the glow pulled back, shrinking away and taking the egg with it. In it's place was a floating pink blob of... something. The blob rippled and then a pair of arms emerged followed by legs and a head. The small pink creature looked down at it's hands in awe and wonder and then began to grin and silent laugh.

A moment later it thrust it's arms and legs out and flashed pink, a bubble of energy rushing out around it. In a matter of seconds the entire solar system was nothing but dust. Buu finally calmed down from it's excitement of being free and began to look around. After a moment it picked a direction and took off.

"That... thing is..." Tien said. "It's unreal. So much power."

North Kai turned to face them again. "Come, we must resume your training."

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"Careful with that thing." Xeno ordered as his men carried the Space Pod onto the cargo ship. Brolly had already been moved into a Cryostasis Chamber and was secured, now it was only a matter of loading the pod onto the ship. He just didn't want it damaged any further than it was. It was bad enough he'd received new orders from Saiya a few days ago. He was being moved from the Geozan 7 project and had been put in charge of watching Brolly for the trip to Saiya and to make a formal report to Master Vegeta upon his arrival.

He wasn't the only one, he'd been ordered to take a small group with him as well. He'd selected to take Everfrost and Eve with him, since they were already involved pretty deeply anyway. He'd need them to help with his report. He'd also decided to bring Rain and Storm, two of the security personnel from the operation. He prefered to have guards he could trust, especially on a ship where a large bulk of the crew was Sai-jin.

The Captain of the cargo ship, a Sai-jin himself, had been rather shocked when his scouter showed that Rain and Storm were both stronger than him. Xeno was still smirking as he remembered watching the Sai-jin's gaze change from one of lust to one of apprehension. Give a Sai-jin a weak target and they'd be all over it, give them someone stronger and they'd be on their best behaviour. It's what he'd been counting on.

"How long is this trip going to take anyway?" Eve asked walking up beside him.

"Well, so long as we don't have any delays..." he said frowning. The ship had been slated to arrive a week ago but had needed to detour around an Electro Magnetic Storm. "It'll be about two, two and a half months."

"I hate being stuck in a ship that long." Rain said walking up on his other side. She and her sister Storm were nearly identicle in appearance. Same five foot height, same light orange skin, and same white hair. Rain had blue eyes while Storm's were red, the only way to tell the two women apart. "I much prefer being firmly rooted on a planet."

"Me too." Xeno replied. "But orders are orders, especially when they come directly from the Masters."


	14. Mysteries of the Universe

_Chapter Fourteen - Mysteries of the Universe_

The noise in the dining hall wasn't as loud as it had been previous mornings. Of course, on those mornings Marron had eaten with the civilians and general staff. Today she was eating with her mother and the higher up officers. There were less people around because of that and they weren't as wild as the lower class seemed to be. Over the past three weeks Marron had spent a good amount of time with her mother, Bulma, Bra, Videl, and Chi-Chi.

She'd found herself developing a friendship with Chi-Chi, something she'd certainly not expected. Videl, too, even. They were a lot alike but at the same time quite different. Marron found it odd that such a kind and gentle woman as Chi-Chi would be married to one of the Masters. Videl was the same in a way. She had that gentle nature to her as well, Marron had seen it a lot shortly after the woman had returned to Saiya. She'd spent a few days comforting her daughter and Bra both. But at the same time Videl had this sharp edge to her.

Bra... Bra was an interesting case. She'd spent the first three days after Goten's death with the girl. She'd almost latched onto Marron as her support system. Marron hadn't really minded, she felt it was her fault Goten had died, so comforting the girl was the least she could do. Lately, though, she'd been getting this... odd vibe from the girl. She wasn't entirely sure what to make of it. She'd been meaning to bring it up with Bulma, had planned to ask her about it this morning, but that hadn't happened. By the time she and 18 had arrived at the table where Bulma was, Chi-Chi and Videl had already been there.

Marron had found that Bulma was a lot like a mild version of Videl. She was gentle, much like Chi-Chi, but she did have a sharper edge all her own, though not as cutting as that of Videl. It had felt odd being around the Masters so much at first, after having only ever seen them on television broadcasts before, but now... now it seemed almost natural to be sitting at the same breakfast table as Bulma, Videl, Chi-Chi, and 18. And she'd gotten over the shock of having 18 as a mother and Krillin as a father.

"How's Pan doing?" 18 asked as she sat and set her plate of pancakes down. The Cyborg didn't really need to eat or drink, Gero had dealt with that, but she still got the feeling of being hungry or thirsty now and then and it was easier to deal with it than ignore it.

"She's getting along better now." Videl said after a moment. "It's still weird... I keep expecting Goten to barge into mine and Gohan's room at the worst time, like he was so good at doing. And just this morning Gohan was talking about things he had to do and commented that he should make Goten do some of it before he caught himself..."

"We never thought we'd lose anyone." Bulma said after a moment. "It's going to take a while to adjust to one of us being gone." Marron turned her eyes down to her plate of toast, bacon, and eggs and poked at it with her fork. "And you, young lady, need to stop brooding." she said looking over to the blonde.

"She's right." Chi-Chi said looking up from her own food. "You're not the one to blame for what happened to Goten. You tried to save him, gave him a better chance than he'd had. And you did save Trunks." Marron didn't say anything, just kept poking at her food.

Across the way, a few tables down, Bra sat with her brother. While Trunks was packing away plate after plate of food the girl was only pecking at her meal. Most of her first plate of food was still there, and rather cold by this point. "You know, if you keep staring at her you're going to bore a hole through her head." Trunks said through a mouthful of food.

"What?"

"Marron. You've not taken your eyes off the girl since she sat down." the prince said swallowing. "If you're that interested in the girl why not say something to her?"

"What! No, it's not like that... It's only... only been three weeks..."

Trunks shrugged. "Maybe that's the reason. You wont know until you do something about it you know."

"I... I can't. Not so soon... and besides, she's not a Master."

"What's that got to do with it?"

"I couldn't do like dad or Kakkarotto. Take a mate for a few decades and then find someone else once they died. I mean... think about it Trunks. We'll live forever, for thousands and thousands of years... Mom, Chi-Chi, Marron, they'll only last a few decades. Mom and Chi-Chi will probably be gone in twenty or thirty years. Marron will be dead in less than a hundred years. That's not much time by comparison to us."

Trunks just shrugged. "You could make her a Master. Gohan did that with Videl."

"Gohan had her made into a Cyborg because dad nearly killed her." she retorted. "She's not actually a Master, just a Cyborg. Her eternal youth is scientific, like 17 and 18, not because she's a Master."

"Well then, do that." Trunks said. "Just do something. You're creeping me out the way you keep staring at her."

Bra laughed. "Creeping you out eh? I'll need to keep it up then, it's always fun to creep you out."

"Ya, ya, and I think the princess needs some sparring time in." She turned and stuck her tongue out at him knowing exactly what he meant.

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Xeno sat down in the chair directly across from the frozen Brolly and relaxed. Now that he was inside the ship and the door was closed he'd peeled off his layers and layers of clothing and was finally in a nice comfortable environment. Eve had stripped down completely and was now soaking nude in a tub of icewater to keep cool. Nezorfs could tolerate temperatures up to seventy degrees before their bodies couldn't cope and began over heating. Still, they preferred it freezing.

Rain and Storm had taken up posts by the door but they weren't really paying much attention. They'd had a 'talk' with the ship's Captain a few minutes ago and he'd assured them no one would come by the cargo bay they were using. The two women were set up in soft chairs and were just relaxing, much like Xeno. Everfrost was busy setting up some stuff to keep them all occupied for the trip. A WaveCom Station so they could watch TV and the microwave for cooking their food, all of which was stored in Capsules.

"Here's what I'd like to know." Eve said after a moment, sinking down deeper into the ice water so that it touched her chin. "How did Brolly get Bardock's Space Pod and escape before Bardock's attack obliterated Tinto?"

Everfrost looked up from his work and back at Eve for a moment. "Damned if I know." he said at last. "I've been brushing up on those records. According to what I've looked at... it's not possible."

Xeno nodded. "Master Cooler was in the area, not far out from the planet at the time. He'd been heading there in an attempt to aid Bardock... There's no records of a pod escaping the planet's destruction..."

"Wouldn't an explosion of that power distort sensors though?" Eve asked. "They were sensitive devices back then."

"I have a better question." Storm piped up. "Where the hell was Brolly for the 18 years between Tinto and being frozen on Geozan 7?"

"Well..." Xeno began. "Pods of that era were still running on the model A-6 design, if I'm remembering what I've read correctly. Tinto to Geozan 7 is, what, 450 Zenons?"

"About that." Storm replied.

"Hmm. Pods now can do about 0.5 Zenons in an hour." Xeno said, working his brain to remember what he'd learned and do some mental math as well. "Fifty-three years ago... A space pod would be lucky to do 10 Zaus an hour, right?"

"I think they could do 12, but don't quote me on that." Eve said.

Xeno nodded again. "So going with 12 Zaus per hour..." he shook his head. "That doesn't make any sense... it would take almost 30 years to travel that distance."

"30 years?" Eve asked confused. "But... we could cross entire galaxies..."

"Large ships, yes." Everfrost said. "But Pods were used for short trips originally. Landings first, then short trips. It's only now that we use them for longer journeys."

"Still." Rain said, talking for the first time. "He made it here in 18, not 30."

"Force perhaps?" Eve suggested. "If the pod was caught in the blast that destroyed Tinto... the force from the explosion could have accelerated the ship."

"That's it!" Xeno cried standing up. "I was wondering why the hell Brolly, apparently with a message intended for Master Kakkarotto, who was still on Earth and wouldn't be found by the Empire again for almost twenty years, would be all the way out at Geozan 7. That's the reason! The pod would have had a set and programmed course based on elapsed time, right?" he asked, looking over to Eve. She was far more the technological person than him.

The naked Nezorf nodded and pulled her self up out of the ice water letting it run down off her body. As she grabbed a towel to dry off with as she spoke. "Pods rely on a set time course system. They adjust their course based upon elapsed travel time and nearing objects detected by radar. Always have." After drying off she hung the towel up and moved over to her computer which she had already set up herself earlier. Sitting down she brought up a couple programs and the universe simulator, knowing exactly what Xeno was thinking.

"Alright. Here is where Tinto was 53 years ago." she said, a red dot appearing in the 3D simulation of the universe. "Earth was here... and Geozan 7 here." Two more dots appeared. Earth and Geozan 7 were almost lined up with each other. "Going at 10 to 12 Zaus an hour reaching the Earth from Tinto would have taken about..." She paused as the system ran it's estimates. "Shit. 15 years."

"Well, opposite sides of the galaxy." Rain said as she moved over to the computer where everyone else, save her sister, was now gathered. "Of course it would take a long time. It still takes a year to travel from the north tip to the south tip of the universe."

"That's not it." Eve said shaking her head. "The pod would have readied for landing after 15 years. If you'll look at the simulation, assuming the pod was moving at almost twice maximum speed, the first planet detected after the 15 year mark would have been Geozan 7, 3 years later."

"So it is possible then, that Brolly was intending to go to Earth?" Everfrost asked.

"Probable and likely." Eve replied. "Assuming, of course, the blast increased his speed as we think."

"Why would Brolly, of all people, travel 15 years across the galaxy to find Master Kakkarotto?" Storm asked from where she sat by the door.

"I don't know." Xeno replied moving over to the Cryostasis Chamber and gazing in through the glass window at Brolly. "He was only six years old back then... still a child. His father was using him to take over the universe... wait, how did Paragus even know where Master Kakkarotto was?" he asked turning around. "It's obvious Brolly wouldn't have known."

"True." Eve said frowning. "Perhaps... Bardock said something?"

"If Bardock knew... why was Kakkarotto's discovery almost 20 years later such a shock to everyone?" Everfrost asked.

"Almost 20 years, almost 20 years, almost, we keep saying that, almost." Eve said standing and pacing. "It's not almost 20 years, it's 18 years."

"You think there's a connection?" Xeno asked. "Between Brolly landing on Geozan 7 and Kakkarotto being found on Earth?"

"I don't see how." Everfrost said.

Eve shook her head. "Not between the two events in exacts... but think about it. If Paragus knew where Kakkarotto was 18 years before he was found... doesn't it stand to reason that _someone_ else knew his general location? Think about all the probes sent to examine that area of space after the Tinto incident..."

"That's just natural progression." Storm said. "The Empire hadn't really expanded much in that direction yet. They'd been more focused on claiming the known inhabitable worlds. Those were almost all claimed by then so the next step was to go the other way."

"Maybe." Eve conceded. "But I'm smelling something here. Something big... Something important. We're still overlooking something. Why would Paragus send Brolly to Earth to find Master Kakkarotto with a _warning_? That doesn't make sense. He wanted to wipe out the Masters of the time and become the lone ruler of the universe... what's there to warn Kakkarotto about?"

"Warn, kill, Kakkarotto." Xeno said, thinking of the bits of the message they had heard. "It's not exactly much to go on, is it?"

Eve sighed and moved over to her towel again to wipe some of the sweat off of her. As she patted down her face she stopped as an idea hit her. Dropping the towel on the floor she moved over to where the Space Pod Brolly had been in sat. "Xeno, bring my computer over here, and my bag."

Xeno hesitated a moment but then grabbed the computer and the black bag beside it and carried them over to where Eve was. The woman had opened the Space Pod already and was now sitting inside it trying to get it to turn on. "Come on, you piece of junk..." she muttered flipping the power switch rapidly. After a few minutes she thrust her foot out kicking the console and the lights flashed twice and came on.

"Ha, got it." she said smiling. "Alright, hand me the computer." Xeno handed it over. "Now, in the bag should be a thick black cable. One end has a flat, thin, long connector while the other should have three different connectors, a round one, a square one, and a triangular one."

Xeno nodded and dug through the bag. It only took him a moment to find the cable Eve had mentioned and pull it out. The woman plugged the one connector into her computer and the other three into various parts of the Space Pod. A moment later those in the ship heard the garbbled message playing through the computer's speakers. Ghairanadkr wa...n dogonikaock kill bnoxoenznour Kakkarotto aboecekjzqeio uionkieb musztic.

"You're going to try and clear it up?" Everfrost asked interested.

"Of course." Eve said setting to work.

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Up in space a pink creature pulled to a stop and gazed down at the sapphire colored planet grinning evily. Suddenly it balled up and charged down toward the surface.

"It's an amazing day outside folks. A cool 68 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, and a gentle comfortable breeze. It's the perfect day to celebrate Overseer Gallon's 100th birthday and 25th year in office here on Endevon!" a very cheery voice called out over speakers spread throughout the city streets. The short, pudgy, green, four-eyed population of planet Endevon simply ignored the voice however, it had been going on and on for the last few hours now and had become little more than background noise.

It didn't help matters that few of them even liked Overseer Gallon. The population had always prefered Guldo, even if he hadn't been all that powerful. He'd had a class and flair that Gallon just didn't have. The Endevars and offworlders had been looking forward to this day however. It was the one day each year where everyone got to relax and have fun. It was one big party. What they didn't know was the danger that was nearing their world rapidly.

"Look mommy!" one of the pudgy aliens called, pointing up at the sky. A pink light glinted in the sky steadily growing bigger and bigger. The others on the streets turned to look skyward as well. Many turned and ran finding that they were under whatever was falling toward them. A moment later the pink streak slammed down into the ground making a massive crater showering debris everywhere.

The aliens moved slowly over to the crater and gazed down into it wondering what had fallen down to their world. A pink film covered the bottom of the crater but it pulsed and wiggled as though alive. And then it began to draw into a ball. A moment later the short pink creature known as Buu had reformed and was gazing about it, grinning and laughing. Raising a short arm and pointing a finger toward those in front and above him pink energy gathered at the tip of its finger. And then a pink stream of energy nearly twenty yards across shot from its finger incinerating everything in its path for ten miles.

The others behind him stood watching in shock and fear as the stream of energy shrank and vanished. Slowly Buu's head turned to look behind him at the others standing there. Panic broke out instantly as they turned and ran. Well, the Endevars did. A small group of five others, offworlders, landed at the edge of the crater, scouters on their faces, black and silver armors glistening in the sun, tails wrapped tightly about their waists.

"What the hell is this thing?" the lone female and strongest of the group said scrunching up her face.

"Hell if I know, Celra." Keel said. "It's ugly, that's for sure."

"It's got some power too." Leke said reaching up and activating his scouter.

Matato grinned. "Well, I doubt it's any match for us. Think it's some kind of new race maybe?"

"Doubt it." Topeto said. "I bet it's probably one of Dr. Gero's rejects or something, and escaped from his lab."

Down in the crater Buu lifted up into the air, it's body slowly twisting to match the direction of its head, until he faced the Sai-jins before him completely. "Ugh.. gaaa." it said rolling its head around on its shoulder.

"Heh. Ugly and stupid." Celra said. "What's the power reading on it Matato?" she asked looking over.

"One second." He replied as he swtiched it to scan mode and started the reading. The power jumped up quickly. Five thousand, twenty thousand, fifty thousand, one-hundred thousand, two-hundred fifty thousand, five-hundred thousand, one million... "Shit!" he cried as his scouter exploded. "It hit two million before it blew!"

"What?" Leke cried taking a step back. "Wh-what the... the hell is this thing!"

Celra shook her head. "Don't know, but the Masters have to know about it." she said thumbing her scouter and pressing the priority alert button. As she listened to the beeping in her scouter, trying to get through to someone on Saiya, she watched the small pink creature before her warily. She had this feeling in the pit of her stomach that she wouldn't face another opponent again, this would be her last battle... Suddenly it raised it's arm again, pointing a single finger at them, laughing.

"Android 16 responding. What's the emergency?"

"There's a... Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..."

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Android 16 set down the box of supplies and then turned to head back into the lab when he heard a beeping in his head, indicating an incoming priority message. He waited a moment but none of the Masters responded so picked up instead. "Android 16 responding. What's the emergency?"

"There's a... Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..."

16 blinked as a roar overwhelmed the sound of the voice and then static filled the line. He waited a moment, to see if the connection returned, and when it didn't he began to access the network logs. All priority messages were recorded and stored and it only took him a second to locate the last message and play it back in his head. He began filtering out the sounds and scanning the transmission for hidden sounds. It only took a moment to detect another voice in the background. _"It's attacking again!"_ 16 frowned and tracked the transmission tag.

"Planet Endevon." he said finding the point of origin. Tapping into the communications network he sent a message to the Overseer's office. It only took a moment to get through. "This is Android 16. I recieved a priorty message that was cut off, is the planet being attacked?"

"We're still looking into it." came the reply. "There have been a series of explosions within the ci..." Once more the line went to static.

16 finally moved from where he stood and entered the lab. Dr. Gero currently stood over his mainframe sorting through piles and piles of data from his latest tests on Master Gohan. "Dr. Gero, I think an attack may be occuring on Planet Endevon. A priority message came in, and was cut off. I contacted the planet and they reported explosions before that transmission was cut."

"Hmm? Well, it could be that Slug and Turles have surfaced again..." he said after a moment. Turning he moved over to another station and the large image on the screen changed from the data Gero had been looking over to solid green. It only took him a moment to pull up the scanner network and then locate Endevon's coordinates. A moment later he ran a scan for high powers in the area. The numbers on the screen climbed rapidly. Ten thousand, fifty thousand, one-hundred thousand, two-hundred-fifty thousand, five-hundred thousand, one million, two million, five million, ten million, twenty million, fifty million... and then the numbers vanished replaced by a single flashing word. ERROR.

"Error?" Gero said in disbelief as the word flashed on the screen. "These things can read powers of up to four hundred million..."

"I think it is safe to assume that it is not Slug on Endevon."

"Perhaps... this could be a glitch though... I'll bring up the satellites." The old man ran his fingers across the keyboard rapidly and the flashing error message on the screen vanished and was replaced with a view of space. He turned the satellite in the area around and located Endevon and then started zooming in. Once at full zoom he started moving it in closer to the planet to get a better view. They could make out general features and such of the planet now but little else.

"What about the on world transmissions?" 16 asked after a moment. "Today was a holiday on Endevon..."

Gero nodded. "Good idea 16, that last upgrade seems to have fixed your AI at last." he said switching from the camera to the space broadcasts. It took a few moments to find something of interest and Gero stopped there. The image was a local broadcast, the camera lay on the ground on it's side with people running passed screaming and blasts of pink energy zipping passed the camera. It was almost a minute later that the source of the attacks entered the frame of the screen. "What in the hell is that thing?" Gero wondered, raising an eyebrow. A moment later it was off screen again but they could still hear its laughing.

"I will go report this to Master Vegeta at once." 16 said turning and leaving the lab.

Gero watched him go and then turned back to the broadcast. "Lets see what kind of data I can get off of you..." he said as he once more bent over the controls of the computer.


	15. Origins of Evil

_Chapter Fifteen - Origins of Evil_

"I'm telling you Vegeta, something's wrong." Kakkarotto said crossing his arms as the three most powerful Master's rode up the lift to the Dining Hall for some breakfast. Vegeta was still soaked in sweat from his early morning training and his spar with Gohan. The entire morning Kakkarotto had been going on and on about a feeling in his stomach that something was wrong, something was happening. 

"Kakkarotto, you're paranoid, you know that?" Vegeta said shaking his head. "How many times have you had this bad feeling of yours, hmm? And how many times has it been right?"

The powerful Sai-jin sighed. "I suppose you're right..." he said pouting.

"I'm more interested in what Gero had to say to you." Vegeta said turning to look at Gohan. The Hybrid had spent most of the night undergoing more of Gero's testing to find out what it was that was wrong with him. And then, that morning, during his spar with Vegeta, another spasm had gripped his body knocking him out of Super Sai-jin and back into his base form. If Vegeta hadn't noticed Gohan's power dropping rapidly the energy he'd been about to launch would have easily killed him.

"He tried some new things." the Hybrid said leaning back against the wall. "But he's still going over most of the results. He did, however, catch something new with an old test. Apparently whatever it is that's effecting me is working on a genetic level."

"What do you mean?"

Gohan sighed. "He took a sample of blood to just run a basic blood test and the computer asked him to identify the subject. Apparently my DNA is no longer the same as it used to be."

Vegeta frowned. "Maybe it's a Hybrid problem? You are the oldest... this just started a couple years ago... it'll be a while yet before any of the others reach that point... perhaps it's just an incompatibility of some sort?"

Gohan shrugged. "No idea. Gero doesn't think so, but he doesn't have a clue what's going on."

The elevator beeped as the doors slid open to the hall. The three emerged and started down the way to the dinning hall. It didn't take long for them to reach the doors and enter the large room. Several of those sitting at the tables near the doors stopped their eating momentarily and stiffened up as the three passed. They had almost reached their table when Gohan caught sight of 16 entering from the opposite end of the room. The Android spotted the three of them instantly and made a direct course for them.

It only took him a moment to reach their position. "Master Vegeta, Master Kakkarotto, Master Gohan." he said nodding to each of them. "I have an urgent matter I must speak with you about." 

Gohan and Vegeta glanced at each other before looking back to Kakkarotto whose expression turned from one of confusion to one of determination. His bad feelings had only ever come to pass a handful of times, they were wrong nintey-nine percent of the time. This looked like one of the rare one percent. "What is it 16?" he asked.

"A priority message from Endevon came in earlier but was cut off. I contacted the planet again but that was cut off a moment later." the Android said. The Android then held out a hand in which rested a scouter. Vegeta took it and put it on. A moment later 16 was transmitting what had occured. They first saw the video feed from a moment ago showing the unknown pink creature. "Whatever it is, it's attacking Endevon."

"What's the problem?" Gohan said. "I doubt it's all that strong... we'd have encountered it by now if it was."

16 shook his head. "We couldn't get a reading. Dr. Gero's scanner maxed out and then gave us an error reading. That means..."

"It's power exceeds four hundred million." Vegeta said softly, a bit shocked. "How would this thing go unnoticed so long?"

Kakkarotto didn't answer, he was busy stretching his mind out scanning all the powers he could feel. He wasn't sure where this 'Endevon' was, but if this thing's power was over four hundred million it shouldn't be too difficult to locate. It took him a couple moments and then he felt something on the edge of his senses. Shifting his focus that way it only took a few minutes more to get a lock on the energy. As soon as he did his eyes snapped open wide, his body shivered, and a thin layer of sweat broke out across him. "There's... that's... holy shit."

"What is it Kakkarotto?" Vegeta asked turning.

"Stretch out your senses. Between here and where the Earth used to be." Kakkarotto said slowly, still trying to grasp the energy he'd felt.

Vegeta and Gohan glanced at each other and then did as Kakkarotto said. It only took them a moment to find the power as well. "What the hell!" Vegeta cried loudly getting the attention of all those in the room. "Shit... what the hell is that thing?"

Gohan shook his head. "It's... unreal. How..."

"Where's the next inhabited world between us and it?" Kakkarotto asked looking at 16.

The Android was silent a moment as it checked records. "Planet Kurokokun." he said at last. "No natural inhabitants but a Capsule Corp. facility is there, with over five million employees."

"Is it the closest inhabited world to Endevon?"

16 shook his head no. "There is a second world, Hoden, that is closer."

"But it doesn't lay between here and Endevon?"

"No. It is well off the route to Saiya."

"What are you thinking Kakkarotto?" Vegeta asked.

The Sai-jin crossed his arms over his chest and furrowed his brow in thought. "Not entirely sure yet." he said after a moment. "Just a feeling..."

"Well..." Gohan said. "Since his last was right, I say we go with this one as well."

Vegeta merely nodded. "16, send out the order now, an emergency meeting of ALL Masters is to be held in 15 minutes! If they're on Saiya I want them in the conference room, otherwsie, I want them on CommLink. Understood?"

"Understood."

As Kakkarotto was turning to leave he stopped and looked back to 16 again. "And send out an evacuation notice for Kurokokun. All those on world are to leave and come to Saiya."

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It had been 10 minutes since the order had gone out for the emergency meeting. Kakkarotto, Vegeta, Gohan, Trunks, Bra, 18, Videl, 16, 19, and Gero were all in the conference room. Of the eighteen Masters they were the only ones on Saiya. Piccolo and Cell were on one screen, transmitting from Planet Cell. Inferna and Cold were up on a second screen still aboard their ships travelling to Inferna's home world. Cooler, Pan, and 17 were on the third monitor, gathered in the conference room on Planet Cooler. On the fourth and final screen was Frieza who was sitting at his com station in his room. All those who wore armor where now in their formal armors.

"So, what's this all about?" Frieza asked as Gero arrived and took his own seat. "It must be something important for you to have called such a meeting so quickly."

"A new problem." Vegeta said. "I'll let the good doctor explain the situation."

Gero nodded and typed a few things on his computer. The monitors in the conference room on Saiya, as well as the ones the others were using, shifted images to show the video from Endevon. As soon as the pink creature appead on the screen he froze the image. "What you are looking at." Gero began. "Is an unkown creature of unknown origins. It appeared on Endevon within the last hour. Scans of the world have yielded no readings, its power exceeds our ability."

"You're kidding?" Cell cried in shock. "But that would put it's power over 400 million!"

"It's well over that." Gero said as the images changed back to the video feeds. "Masters Kakkarotto, Vegeta, and Gohan sensed the creature out and have confirmed it's power. It is stronger than Master Kakkarotto."

"How is that possible?" Pan asked worried.

Gero shook his head. "I'm afraid that all I've learned so far is that it most likely came from Earth."

"Earth? How?" 18 asked looking over to Gero.

"I don't know. It's possible this creature was a project of the Humans still there. It is also possible this thing came about some other way, some other place, and just passed through the rubble of the Earth. Either way, I've verified that the entire solar system in which the Earth resided is gone. The rubble of the Earth, the other planets, the sun, it's all been completely destroyed."

"We could just destroy the planet." Piccolo said after a moment of silence.

Gero shook his head. "This thing was caught on satellite just before landing on the planet, I found the records a few minutes ago. It came down to the planet under its own power. I think that's how it got to Endevon as well."

"Doesn't need to breathe... damn." 17 said frowning. "Any chance we could contain it somehow?"

"Without knowing what it is... no. Our only option is to fight it." Gero said, and then looked over to Kakkarotto.

"I think it's coming here..." the Sai-jin said after a moment. "Possibly it can sense us. In our base forms we may not be the most powerful in the universe but... we are the closest powers of note."

"What makes you think it cares?" Inferna asked, curious.

"A... feeling." Kakkarotto replied. "They're not always right... hell, they're usually wrong. But this is a strong one... has been all day. So I've come up with a plan."

"A plan?" You? I'm impressed." Videl said smirking.

The Sai-jin shrugged. "I do have my moments... anyway, it's a simple plan. I'm going to Kurokokun, a planet between here and Endevon. I'll power up, try and draw the creature's attention."

"And then what? Fight it?" Pan asked. "But... it's stronger than you!"

Kakkarotto nodded. "Ya, I know. I'm rather looking forward to it." he said grinning. "But just in case, Gohan's going to come with me. With both of us, despite it's power, we _should_ be able to beat it. If not... it wont matter. No one else has the kind of power to fight this thing..."

The Master was interrupted by beeping in the room. All those gathered looked at each other wondering who had accessed the secure com link for the room. Vegeta reached out and pressed a button and a fifth screen came to life showing Marron. "I, um... Sorry to interrupt. Dr. Gero asked I inform him immediately if I found something..." 

"Ah, yes. I asked Marron to do a little research on this creature while we had our meeting." Gero said explaining. "What is it you've found?"

"Everything." she said, still absorbing it herself. "Planet Bibidi, near the edge of the West Galaxy... it's devoid of life now, has been for thousands of years... but there used to be an advanced civilization on the planet. We've been researching them for the passed decade or so."

"This thing originated there? Then... how is it in the North Galaxy?" Pan asked.

Gero glanced at Pan a moment then looked back to Marron. "Give us everything you found, from the beginning."

Marron sighed. "The creature is called Majin Buu. It was created by one of the Wizards of the world, Babidi. Actually, it _is_ Babidi. I think. According to what I've found... Babidi was the second son of Bibidi the 62nd, king of Planet Bibidi. He and his brother, Bibidi the 63rd, both had their eyes on the same woman. I don't know all the details, but in the end she wound up being killed. Babidi vanished for nearly ten years after that, no one saw him. And then... well, watch for yourselves."

The screen showing Marron shifted to a very distorted and tattered image of a large courtyard or town square. The area was packed full of short yellow, blue, and green people as well as some that looked very much like Sai-jins or Humans. Standing on a stage was another of them giving a speech. None of them could understand the language. After a moment a new form came on screen, walking up onto the stage. He too was a short yellow man, but unlike the others who wore normal looking clothes he was in black robes. The Masters managed to catch the name Babidi as the camera zoomed in.

The man in the black robes raised his staff above his head and began to speak loudly and quickly. Even though they couldn't understand his words they could still hear the anger in them. There was a flash of pink from his staff and then black energy began flowing into the alien from every direction. When it ended the yellow man had been replaced by a large purple ball. The ball then cracked and split open, a pink smoke gathering and then forming into the pink creature from the video on Endevon. Only... this creature was much taller and much rounder. In fact, it looked fat. And then the screen went black. Marron's face then returned again.

"So where's it been all this time?" Bra asked.

"Well... I don't know how it got from Planet Bibidi to Earth... but I think it's been trapped on Earth since."

"How? Why?" Frieza asked.

"There's a legend." Marron said. "About three thousand years ago a Demon walked the Earth, living only to destroy..."

18 nodded. "I know this." she said, all eyes turning to her. "A young girl approached the Demon when it came to her village. While the others ran from it, she didn't. The girl didn't know what it was and it had saved her from people that were attacking her, even if it hadn't meant to. The legend says that she befriended the Demon. A few days later, when the villagers returned and saw them playing together, they thought perhaps the Demon wasn't as strong as rumors had said, and they began to throw rocks and sticks at it.

"One of the rocks missed the Demon and hit the girl. When the Demon realized she was dead it revived her. But then... it turned back on those who'd been throwing the rocks and killed them. This terrified the girl and she fled. When the Demon found her again she was still scared of him. Not wanting to lose its friend the Demon forced the evil out of its body into a new body. This new small Demon picked up where the old had left off upon meeting the girl. Destroying and killing without reason.

"After a few days the girl and the large Demon returned to the village again to find it destroyed. The work of the small Demon. The large Demon went after it but was losing the fight, the evil was winning. But then, the girl showed up. The small Demon saw her and went to attack her... The legend doesn't say how exactly it happened but somehow the large Demon encased the small Demon with its own body, turning into a hard shell. And that was that. The Demon Egg, as it was then called, was locked away inside the Earth."

"You think it's connected?" Kakkarotto asked scratching the back of his head. "I always thought it was just a story..."

"Well..." Gero said thoughtfully. "It does seem to match in some ways. It is perhaps possible that it is close to the actual events that occured. Having been so long ago it isn't possible for us to be sure the exact course of events... still, this does give me a thought."

"Oh?" Vegeta asked.

"If this, Majin Buu, did divide into two parts, good and evil, and the good half was able to contain the evil... Perhaps it's possible again?"

"You mean, find the good Buu?" 18 asked curious. "What if he's gone? What if it was destroyed and that's how this Buu is free now?"

"Possible. Likely, in fact." Gero said. "But we may not need this Buu. Perhaps... Kami's powers..."

"I could ask." Piccolo said with a nod. "The old fool may want us all dead but he still cares about the rest of the universe."

"Look into it." Vegeta said. "It may be our last chance if Kakkarotto can't stop this thng."

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It had only been fifteen minutes since the meeting and Kakkarotto was already in at the dock watching as his Saucer Ship was prepped for immediate launch. The trip would take just over a day and the crew would be as small as possible. Just him, Gohan, and about five techs to manage the systems. "I want you to stay back from the battle as much as possible." Kakkarotto said as Gohan walked up beside him. "If your condition comes up during a fight with this thing..." 

"Ya, I know." Gohan said nodding. "I'll be careful, don't worry. If I get myself killed out there Videl will come after me and kick my ass."

"Damn right." Videl said walking up behind him. "You get yourself back here alive."

"So, do you think we really have a chance of fighting this thing? We don't even know what the hell it is really." Gohan said.

Kakkarotto shrugged. "It's strong, but I think we could win. This battle... this may just be what I need." he said grinning.

"What you..." suddenly realization dawned on him. "Ah, hoping to transform again are you? Heh, I should have known. Your entire interest in fighting this thing is to try and push through to the fourth level, isn't it?"

"Of course."

Videl shook her head. "I still don't see how a fourth level is possible." she said. "Your power is already beyond anything else... anything natural at least, in the universe. You're practically a god..."

"It's there.. right under the sur..." He was cut off as a soldier came running up toward him calling his name frantically. "What is it?" he asked adjusting his battle armor.

"Video footage from Endevon." the man said coming to a stop and panting. "The creature... just blew up... the whole system... We're picking up... multiple patterns... it's... in pieces but... still alive."

Kakkarotto and Gohan glanced at each other. "It can regenerate?" Gohan asked. "Any idea how well?"

"Cell level, at least." The man panted. "The thing is in... five million pieces... literally. You'll probably need... to atomize the thing... to kill it."

Kakkarotto nodded. This was good information to have prior to fighting the thing. "Now as long as it doesn't destroy our battlefield..."

"Well, we can breathe in space for a bit." Gohan said crossing his arms. "About what? Five minutes?"

"About." his father replied, the excitement and concern both etched clearly on his face. "We'll have the ship move back, in case this thing goes for broke. I'm hoping I'm right though... the way it landed and attacked instead of just destroying it from space..."

"You think it's looking for a fight?"

"I'm hoping..."

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"Open fire!" a deep and gruff voice shouted. Instantly the street was alight with gold and white light as hundreds of energy blasts surged down the road toward the pink creature walking toward them. The pudgy green beings launching the attacks all stopped a moment later as they realized every blast simply punched through the thing and the hole sealed up in seconds. "Damn it, how the hell do you kill this thing?" 

"It's attacking! Pull back!" another voice shouted. The gathered warriors scattered quickly as Buu began to fire energy blasts rapidly toward the warriors. In a matter of seconds they were all dead leaving the street empty and silent. No, not silent. A soft and hushed crying came from one of the nearby piles of rubble, a former building. Buu stopped and looked that way tilting his head slightly. The small creature grinned and walked over to the rubble lifting a large chunk of wall off the ground and pitching it a few miles.

There, huddled back in a small alcove made of rubble, was another native of this world, small and crying. Buu laughed as he raised an arm toward the alien and pink energy charged at the end of his arm. Suddenly his eyes snapped wide, an intense pain searing through his skull. The energy dissipated as he grabbed his head and began to scream, his power washing out about him. "Gaaaaaaaaaaa! Ugga gaaaaaaaaaaaa!" he cried pounding his head. Still the pain continued, pounding inside him.

"Gwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Buu threw his arms and head back and let out a cry of anger. His aura flared up and out, the planet began to shake, and a crater started forming under him. And then a massive pink explosion tore from his body, through the planet, and spread out obliterating the entire solar system. As the energy faded into darkness, leaving only the void of space, small pink blobs scattered about for thousands of miles wiggled and slowly began to draw toward each other.


	16. Unravelling

_Chapter Sixteen - Unravelling_

Kakkarotto and Gohan stood side by side in identicle blue body suits and white and brown battle armors. They were on the bridge of the ship watching the last of the evacuation shuttles as it left Kurokokun. They were about fifteen minutes from landing on the planet and had just contacted Saiya to speak with Gero. "So, I was right then?"

Gero nodded. "Buu finished reforming about an hour after you left and started straight for Kurokokun. It did stop at one point, not sure why, but then started again."

"Maybe it sensed the evacuation and our approach?" Gohan suggested. "If it can sense powers like we think it would have no doubt noticed us coming."

"Yes, that is likely." Gero said. "In any rate, the creature will arrive at Kurokokun in another two and a half hours."

Gohan nodded. "Has Piccolo checked back in?"

"Yes. Shortly after you left in fact. It seems that Kami does indeed know a method that could possibly contain Buu. A technique called the 'Evil Containment Wave'. However, apparently, it is deadly to the user."

Gohan frowned. "Perhaps 19 or 16 could use it... being entirely mechanical it probably wouldn't kill them..."

Gero shook his head. "It uses life force energy. Of the Androids only 17 and 18 could actually use the skill. I've spoken to Vegeta about this already and he's got a few people in mind that could possibly use the skill. Fortunately it seems that differences in strength don't matter with this ability so literally anyone could use it."

"Well, that's good news at least." Kakkarotto said. "But I don't intend on losing this fight. I've not had a challange like this in so long... this is going to be great!"

Gero chuckled as the screen went black. Gohan had to agree with the scientist on that sentiment. Sai-jins looked forward to battle no matter what. A challenging battle was even more enticing. But with his father it was quite a different thing. Whereas most Sai-jins wanted to fight to get stronger Kakkarotto wanted to fight to fight. He just loved fighting, loved challenge, and loved the excitement of it all. The power was merely a bonus in his mind. Though, the powerful Sai-jin had often admitted he wished he wasn't as strong as he was sometimes. Being at the top rather limited one's options for good sparring partners.

"We're entering the atmosphere now." a tech said from behind the two warriors. "You may want to take your seats." The two nodded and moved over to their chairs. The clouds passed by quickly as the ship came down and made it's landing. A few moments later they were exiting as the engines revved up and the ship took off again. It would move back outside of the solar system and await the signal to return for the two Sai-jins, just in case Buu decided to destroy Kurokokun. This way they'd still have a ship to use.

The two gazed about at the massive complex around them. Kurokokun wasn't the most hospitable of worlds but it had been rich in a lot of resources. It made the perfect place for a research facility. "How big is this place?" Kakkarotto asked.

"About fifty square miles on surface, a hundred and thirty cubic miles of space above ground." Gohan replied. "Another good twenty cubic miles underground too."

"Damn... sounds expensive."

Gohan chuckled. "Around five hundred billion Zenni."

"Vegeta would kill me if I wrecked this place... come on, let's head out to a more open area." Kakkarotto said lifting into the air and taking off, Gohan close behind. It didn't take long for the two to find a wide open expanse. Not a mountain or even a hill in sight. Landing Kakkarotto laid down, put his hands under his head, closed his eyes, and he was asleep. Gohan stared at him for a moment, shook his head, and then sat down to wait.

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Tao stood in front of the storage area where the artifacts he'd collected were stored. One thing he hated about space flights, he couldn't do anything. Sure, he could squeeze in some training, and now that he had company even a little sparring, but that didn't actually get anything done. He'd been travelling through space for years now, tracking down these artifacts. Now he was close to the final two, he just had to find Slug and steal them. But then... then would come the hardest part. Locating the Ancient's Homeworld.

He knew a good bit about the planet. One, it was hidden from those that didn't know it was there. Two, it was actually a moon, as opposed to a planet. Three, it orbited a planet twice the size of Jupiter. Four, it was dangerous. Highly dangerous. The Ancients had left behind 'Automated Guaridans' on their Homeworld to protect it. Why or how he didn't know. Apparently the Potaras served two uses. One was the use Tao sought, the power to merge two beings into one. The other was as some sort of key... to what he didn't know. Just that it was hidden on the planet somewhere.

After having talked with Nail about this he'd begun to wonder if, perhaps, that is what Slug sought. Not to fuse with Turles but to locate this unknown secret. If that was true... perhaps Slug knew what this secret was. And if he wanted it then it had to be something important. As such they'd made a small change to the plans. Tao would locate and acquire the artifacts, once they found Slug's ship, while Nail accessed the computers and tried to determine what it was that Slug was actually after.

Of course, this all depended on them _finding_ the Namek. Slug was good at hiding. One of the best. It's how he'd survived all this time. The Human turned from the artifacts and made his way back up to the command level of the ship. "Tao, we're passing through a transmission stream." Nail said turning to face the Human.

Tao nodded and moved over to the com station and began recording all the data off the stream. It was the only way to get the information without connecting to the network, and if you were on the network you were detectable by the computers on Saiya. Staying off the network made it easier to stay undetected.

The Human watched as the computer sifted through everything and in a matter of moments all the new information was downloaded, stored, and what the computer thought was important was tagged for priority reading. Instantly a broadcast appeared on the monitor with 'Earth' up in the top right corner. Tao had the computer set to automatically show him any info related to the Earth instantly.

The video was a news broadcast, a blue skined and red haired anchorwoman speaking. The date in the bottom corner was just over three hours old. "It has been confirmed, the entire solar system where the Planet Earth, the world Master Kakkarotto grew up on and birthplace of the Humans, is gone. It is unclear at this time as to what caused the destruction of the entire solar system but the Masters are looking into the matter..."

Tao switched it off. "Seems the Masters finally got smart." he said after a moment of silence.

"But the entire system?"

"Probably wanted to make sure no one was hiding on another planet." Tao replied.

Nail nodded. "So... now what?"

The Human shook his head. "Don't worry about my allies. They're fine. We had expected this and had a contingency plan in place. They're safe on a new world, hidden from the Masters just like the Ancient's Homeworld and Namek. Plans continue as they are."

The Namek sighed a bit relieved. "That's good to know. So, do we have any idea where to look for Homeworld? I know you've told me what you know..."

Tao shook his head. "Not really." he said. "That's something else I want to look into on Xentron. Once we're on a planet we can access the network without giving away our location to the Masters. From there I can research and find the place..." Tao suddenly paused in his pacing, a thought coming to him at that moment. "But who says Slug waited?"

"What?"

"Slug's great at hiding. He shows up somewhere. Does what he needs too. And then he's gone again. Just like that. His ship is rather large... I've wondered how you hide something like that. What if..."

"He's hiding out on Homeworld!" the Namek said in understanding. "That could work. If he found it first it'd make a perfect place to hide from the Masters."

"Yes. We'll try and locate Homeworld first, see if perhaps Slug is hiding out there. We may just get lucky..." He moved over to his command chair and sat down pulling up the information he'd downloaded and sifting through it.

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Bra stared up at her ceiling, her blankets pulled up tight against her. She figured Pan was probably even more worried than her, it was her father and grandfather out there getting ready to fight that thing. But... she was worried too. If they couldn't stop it... She'd never considered the possibility that she'd died. Never. She was one of the Masters, she'd live forever. Now, though, there was that chance... _"At least I'd get to see Goten again..."_ she thought glumly.

However, thoughts of Goten soon lead to thoughts of Marron. She couldn't help it. The blonde haired girl had caught her eye that first day in the med bay. She wondered if, perhaps, that's why she'd clung to her so much that day. Or maybe... that's why she felt like she did now, because she'd clung to her then and still was now. _"Ugh, I'm going to drive myself crazy trying to figure this out. Do I like her or not? Well, Bra, there's only one way to find out."_

With that thought she tossed off the covers and sat up. "Oh, who am I kidding?" she nearly cried as she looked at herself in her mirror. "I'll die of old age before I ever actually say anything to her!" and with a groan she fell back onto the bed again, grabbed her pillow, and pulled it up over her face. "I'm hopeless." she muttered through the pillow.

"Got that right." a voice said from off to her right.

"Gee, thanks Pan." she said through the pillow.

"Just call them as I see them." the other girl replied. "So, what's wrong now?"

"Wrong? What could possibly be wrong? The universe is coming to an end at the hands of a wad of pink chewing gum and my brain wont stop thinking about Marron. Everytime I close my eyes it's her. Sure, Goten shows up first sometimes, but always her. Gah!" her muffled cry sounded through her pillow as she pulled it down against her face harder.

Pan chose to ignore the refrence to the Buu creature not wanting to think about it and instead pressed on the other matter. "Oooh, someone's got a crush."

"Ya... no... I don't know!" Bra nearly yelled pulling the pillow off her face. "I... maybe. I don't know. Maybe I'm just latching onto her, you know? Cause she was there... that night. Or maybe not."

"Well, you're a Sai-jin... it's natural."

Bra snorted.

"It is." Pan said leaning in closer to her com station so that her face filled the screen of Bra's monitor. "Sai-jins don't really show feelings, not most, but they're not solitary creatures. Haven't you noticed? You'll never see a Sai-jin alone unless they're asleep or possibly eating."

"So I don't like her..."

Pan shrugged. "I don't know. It's not the first time you've had a crush on a girl. You did have that thing for 18 a few years back." The raven haired girl smiled a little. "And of course, the thing you had for me."

"Hey! You said you were going to drop that! I was nine, give me a break."

Pan laughed. "I'm just saying, it's possible. You should talk to her."

Bra sighed. "I don't know. It just doesn't feel right, starting something so soon after... after Goten's death. And then... going through that again... losing him was bad enough... losing anyone else..."

"I know how you feel." Pan said after a moment of silence. "I couldn't take it if something happened to 17... and no matter what I'm sticking with him. But you can't let that hold you back Bra. You don't want to be alone for the rest of eternity, do you?"

"But that's just it!" she cried. "Even if I do find someone else... it'll only last for a while and then they'll die. I know dad doesn't seem to care that much... he's actually been looking at a lot of the women around the palace for a new mate I think, but me... I can't do that. I can't take a new mate every sixty or seventy years."

"Then don't." Pan said. "You _are_ the princess. Use that, make whoever you take as your mate a Master, screw what your father says."

"That's easy for you to say. You wouldn't have to deal with him afterwords, I would."

"It's not like he can do anything. Think about it. He can rant and rave and yell until he's red and steam is pouring out of his ears but once you're a Master you've got Eternal Youth. Even if he says their not and they can't make any decisions or anything, they'll still live forever."

"Ya... I guess so. And dealing with his temper is worth it in the end, I think." Bra sat up and finally looked over to Pan's face on the monitor. "Thanks."

"No problem. It's what ex-crushes are for."

Bra threw her pillow at the monitor. "Just for that I think I'll send 17 off to some oxygenless planet for a few months!" she said sticking her tongue out.

"Oooh, want me all for yourself do you?" Pan joked.

"You are _so_ full of yourself."

"Anyway, I was calling for a reason actually. More than just seeing how you were doing anyway. It turns out that matters here are being... delayed. Apparently Cooler's decided to hold off on all diplomatic actions until this... thing... is dealt with. Which means... I'm stuck on this rock for a month longer than I'd thought. I can't get through to your father to let him know so I was hoping you could tell him? 17 was supposed to deal with some problem on Leberion after he got back, some sort of rebel faction thing or something."

Bra nodded. "Sure, no problem. I'll see if I can find him now... I feel like sparring with Trunks anyway."

"You? Feel like sparring? Are you feeling alright?"

Bra laughed. "Ya, I'm fine. Sparring helps me relax and I'll need to before I talk to Marron..."

"So, you're going to go for it then?"

"Ya... I think I will..."

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Shin gazed at the warriors before him once more as they trained. They'd come pretty far in the last three weeks. Nappa had managed to learn how to do Bardock's Hell Fire move, though the power boost wasn't as great for him. Shin supposed it was a representation of how close the two were to attaining that power. Bardock was closer than Nappa and thus could tap into more of the power. Raditz hadn't even bothered attempting it deciding to stick with his Super Sai-jin transformation since it was stronger anyway.

"Ah, Supereme Kai!" Bardock called seeing the mohawked Kai at last. "Just the person I was looking for." he grinned.

Shin raised an eyebrow. He'd only seen Bardock this excited once before, when Nappa had learned the Hell Fire technique. "Something has you in good spirits."

"Of course." the Sai-jin said grinning. "Gains in power always do." He turned toward Raditz. "Come on, let's do this."

"Do we have to? It looks so ridiculous." Bardock just scowled. "Alright, I'm coming." Raditz mumbled walking over. Shin watched in interest as the two lined up and he felt Bardock's power drop quickly. Soon it was even with that of Raditz. Then, together, they began to move and call out. "Fuuuuuu. Sion. Ha!" Their fingers touched, light sparked and flared, and then a new power replaced the two Sai-jins. A much stronger power.

"A-amazing! You've pulled it off!" Shin cried as the light faded away to reveal the new warrior. He looked almost exactly like Bardock but he had Raditz's eyes and hair. His pants were dark blue, the vest black with sea green trim.

The fusion smirked and laughed. "Radock at your service." he said in a double voice, bowing. "Care for a demonstration of my full power?" Shin merely nodded. Radock grinned and hunched over, a roar exploding from the pit of his stomach as he gathered every ounce of his power about him, a swirling blue aura dancing about him wildly. The entire planet trembled under his feet as the mighty warrior focused his strength. "Here we go!" he cried. "Hell Fire!"

His aura flared outward massively, shifting rapidly to the red fire like aura associated with the move. Blue, white, black, yellow, and orange specks of light floated up along the aura like burning embers as the ground beneath his feet exploded into rubble. The fusion threw it's head back and let out a roar as its muscles swelled up growing to twice their original size. His eyes turned solid red and Shin noticed that he grew a pair of fangs as well. And then he felt the true extent of the power increase. Twenty-five fold. Not twenty as Bardock could do alone or ten as Nappa could. Twenty five.

"That's... amazing." Shin breathed. "Outstanding! Only Gohan and Kakkarotto are stronger than you now!"

"Then I have something to work for." the fusion said in a deep and raspy voice. "But first, I need a sparring partner." he said turning to look at the others.

Olibu and Nappa looked at each other and grinned, the Sai-jin's energy dipping down slightly to match the Human's. A moment later, much to Shin's shock, they were going through the same steps Bardock and Raditz had just done. "Fuuuuuuu. Sion. Ha!" The light flared and swirled about them. And when the light faded it revealed a new warrior. He was very large and musclar in appearance. His pants were white and the vest was black with white trim. His eyes were iris-less but blue, his hair short and spikey blonde, almost Super Sai-jin in appearance.

The Fusion hunched over and gathered energy about it, the planet shaking once more. "Hell Fire!" his double voice cried a moment later. The Fusion's white aura exploded into a fire red one as his already large muscles grew even larger. It only took a moment and then two pure red eyed Fusion's stood grinning at each other, excitement on their faces. This new Fusion's power was a bit more than half that of Radock's... which was still very powerful. It also meant that he only got a ten fold increase with the Hell Fire like Nappa. And Hybrid's lacked access to the Human transformation so that wasn't a possibility for this warrior.

"So, Napu, ready to go?" Radock asked in his deep, raspy, double voice.

"This should be fun." Napu said grinning. "Going to join in Pikkon?" The green alien walked over, his weighted clothes already discarded, and stood beside Napu. He and the Fusion eyed up Radock for a moment and then all three vanished.

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Rain had her legs propped up on a crate as she leaned back into her chair and watched the TV Everfrost had set up. She was currently the only one awake. Her sister was stretched out on her own chair sleeping, Everfrost and Xeno were in their cots sleeping. And Eve had drained the water from her tub and packed it with ice and gone to sleep as well. They'd all tried to stay awake until the computer had finished cleaning up the message in the pod but one by one they'd dropped off. Rain had been the only smart one of the group having slept already so she was still fresh.

Suddenly she heard a series of sharp beeps from the area of the pod. Moving over to the pod she looked at the screen of the computer and sure enough it was done. She moved over to the tub and reached in shaking Eve. "Hey, you wanted me to get you up when it finished, well, it's finished."

It took a few minutes to get everyone up and about and then they were gathered around the pod again, Eve seated inside with the computer on her lap. "Alright folks, this is as cleaned up as the audio gets. Time to find out what it was Brolly was doing going to Earth." Her fingers danced over the keys as she cued up the cleaned up audio file and ran it through a few last minute filters to help with clearing out any odd background noises.

It was Bardock's voice that sounded from the speakers. "Kakkarotto, this is Brolly, he's a friend, I asked him to help you. By the ... .ou .et this I'll probably be dead. Things are going badly .. ... ..pire. Prin.. ..geta doesn't see it but Para... ... I can. I wanted to warn you, before they found you. The Chan...ings, or maybe just Cooler, are aft.. ...methi.. and aren't ... .. .ur side. I know he'll kill us all eventually, once .. ... ..atever it is he's a...r. Kakkarotto, be careful, and don't let your gaurd down."

The five looked at each other, the same look of confusion and shock etched on all five faces. "What... the hell?" Eve said finally breaking the silence after several long moments. There were some parts still missing to the audio but nothing could be done about that. Didn't really matter anyway, she could make out the gist of the message now. "I don't get it..." she said shaking her head. "Bardock and Brolly where on the same side? But... what about the events on Tinto?"

Xeno rubbed his forehead. "I don't know." he said slowly. "We... we need to work this out." he turned and started pacing around the room. "We'll go from the beginning, with what we know... or think we know."

"Where's the beginning though?" Everfrost asked.

"The meeting of the Empires." Eve said pulling herself out of the pod and moving over to her ice packed tub to cool off. "When they first met it was Master Cold that stopped a fight from breaking out when his sons' egos clashed with Master Vegeta's father."

"Right." Xeno said nodding. "Then, a few years later, Paragus and Brolly made their debut by killing the Sai-jin King about a year before the Tinto incident. Damn... who was the strongest back then?"

"The young Master Vegeta." Storm replied. "Just around 90,000,000 according to records. And then came Master Frieza at just short of 70,000,000."

"How strong was Cooler?" Eve asked.

"Around 20,000,000 I think."

Xeno nodded. "Alright, alright, that's something... Paragus was around a 100,000 and there's no exact records on Brolly but he couldn't have been much stronger than Bardock's 500,000."

"No." Eve said shaking her head. "That number is wrong. Yes, it's Bardock's last recorded power, but it was nearly a year before Tinto that that power was recorded."

"What do you mean?" Rain asked, turning to face the Nezorf.

"When Bardock went to Kanassa his power was at 500,000. He came back from that battle half dead so he would have recieved a Zenkai from that. But before his power could be recorded again he took off, apparently having picked up word of what Paragus was up to while on Kanassa. We have little records of his actual exploits, with the state of matters on Saiya after the King's death... it was near chaos."

Eve sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "We do know that Bardock got into a number of battles though. There's a record of him appearing at the hospital complex on Vergo 7 and then again a few weeks later on Vergo 8. And we know he was on Cold's ship for a short time and there's records of him using the Regen Tanks there as well before taking off again."

"Shit." Rain said softly. "Four Zenkais?"

"At the least." Eve said nodding. "Most don't even give it a thought I've found, but... well, I've always been interested in Bardock so I've done little bits of research here and there. Anyway, with at least four Zenkais, with a starting power of 500,000 he would have been at least around 1.5 million on Tinto."

"And he still had trouble fighting Brolly?" Everfrost wondered. "How? I mean..."

"I spoke to a doctor a few years ago." Storm said slowly. "While I was stationed on Saiya. He was an old guy and we kept each other company sometimes, talking all night a few times. He told me he was one of the attendants the morning that Master Kakkarotto and Brolly were born. Kept going on about how he couldn't believe how strong Master Kakkarotto had become having only had a power of 200 at birth. He said that Brolly had attracted a good bit of attention, since his power was already 15,000 at birth. Granted, he was in the 'Second Generation' so it wasn't too suprising, but he said there was something... different to the boy."

"Different? Different how?" Eve asked.

"He said it was the same with Master Kakkarotto. They both had the same... feel to them. He couldn't describe it but he had the feeling the two of them would be great warriors and play a large role in the future." Suddenly Storm's eyes snapped open as she remembered something else. "He told me once that he would show me the records from then, about those two, but both of them had been sealed and he didn't know why. None of the other records ever were."

"Just what we needed to do." Eve muttered. "Stumble onto a damn conspiracy in the Empire. Shit."

"If Master Cooler really is out to take over..." Everfrost said. "We'd get a big reward for finding out about it and warning the other Masters."

Eve sighed. "Bring me my computer again. I'll hack into Saiya's database and find the records on Master Kakkarotto and Brolly."


	17. Showdown on Kurokokun

_Chapter Seventeen - Showdown on Kurokokun_

Bra wasn't sure where they were, her brother and father. She had ideas where to find them and decided she'd start with looking for her father. She figured she should let him know about 17 before going off to do other things, that way he could set up a replacement. She'd tried the royal chambers and the dining hall so far. Only one other likely place he could be, his chambers. Stopping outside the doors she reached up and knocked. "Father, you in there?"

"Hm? Bra? What is it?" Vegeta called from the inside. A moment later the door opened and Vegeta, still in his robe, poked his head out the door.

"Got a call from Pan earlier... she and 17 have been trying to contact you..."

"I have my com station set to handle matters with this... thing." Vegeta said. "What's up?"

"It seems that Master Cooler's put things on hold on his world until this creature is handled so... 17 will be delayed and can't deal with the problem on Leberion."

Vegeta nodded. "Alright... Tell 18 she's to take over the mission. She should be with Trunks down in the holding area."

Bra shook her head. "Figures that's where he'd be." With that she made her way through the halls again, her mind still working over matters about Marron. She was so lost in thought that she'd reached the holding cells before she'd even realized it. She could hear some cries coming from down the way and figured that'd be a good room to start at. Sure enough she found Trunks there, 18 standing off to the side and just staring at the ceiling, and the prisoner in the cell had apparently just passed out.

"There you are." Bra said leaning against the door frame. "You're the easiest person to find in this place, just follow the screams."

"Oh, hey Bra, what's up?" Trunks asked turning around.

"I wanted to see if you were up for a spar? I need to work some kinks out of my system."

Trunks raised an eyebrow but then shrugged. "Sure, I'm done down here for now anyway. I'll just go change and meet you in chamber 9?"

"Ok."

Trunks nodded and left leaving the two women behind. Bra was silent for a moment but as 18 started to leave she realized she still had to give her father's orders. "Oh, 18. It seems 17 is going to be delayed on Planet Cooler for a bit so dad wants you to take over the mission to Leberion."

"Leberion?" the Cyborg asked pausing. "Isn't that the one rebel planet?"

Bra shrugged. "Don't know."

18 sighed. "Sure, I'll handle it."

"Ummmm. There's something else I... want to talk to you about."

"Oh?"

"Ya... Ummm. It's... well... I think, maybe, I'm not really sure, but... I think I might..."

18 smirked. "You like Marron?"

"Wha?"

The Cyborg moved a hand up to her mouth as she chuckled. "It's obvious, really." she said after a moment. "Your mother and I noticed it a few days ago."

"You... you did?"

"Ya. Marron hasn't seemed to have figured it out yet but she's been noticing too, you know. So, I take it you wanted to ask me if I'd mind, and if she might feel the same, right?" The young Hybrid nodded. "Well, as for me minding, no, I don't. Certainly better you than some of the others around here. But for her... I don't know. I've talked with her quite a bit but she's never brought up any past romances and I've yet to ask so I don't really know."

"Oh. Well... I guess I'll just have to then... later... after the spar."

18 reached up and put her hand on Bra's shoulder. "I hope things work out, but if they don't you can come and talk to me, ok?"

"Thanks."

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Gohan opened his eyes and looked up. While his father had slept he'd been meditating. Now, though, Buu was close. He could clearly feel the creature's power only a few moments from reaching the planet. "Man, that thing is fast." he muttered.

"You're telling me." Kakkarotto said suddenly sitting up. Gohan blinked a few times, he'd not realized his father was awake. "Remember, stay back unless I can't get a footing in the battle." the elder Sai-jin said.

"Right." The two stood and waited but then they felt Buu's energy shift courses slightly. His direction would have him by-passing the planet now. "What the hell?"

Kakkarotto frowned. "Wait, our powers, they're still supressed." Suddenly the Sai-jin grinned and a gold light flared up around him. There was a flash as he transformed into a Super Sai-jin. He wanted to attract Buu, not give away the extent of his power. Not yet at least. Both felt Buu suddenly stop and pause for a moment, and then he began to descend toward the planet. "Well, that proves it, this thing can sense power levels."

A moment later a streak of pink appeared over the horizon flying down through the sky and toward them. It only took a few seconds for it to streak passed them and slam into the ground a few dozen yards away. The two Masters turned to watch as the dust settled. There was silence for several long moments and then soft footsteps as Buu slowly walked up out of the crater. "Sure is ugly though." Kakkarotto said crossing his arms, and then he started laughing when the creature scowled. "Oh, you can understand me then?"

Buu just tilted his head side to side and flexed his arms as though working out some kinks.

"Not much for talking huh? Well, that's ok. Mind if we do a little warm up first? Work up to the fight? It's more fun and helps me get going." the Sai-jin said with a grin, a gust of wind ruffling his blonde hair.

"Shaaaaaa." Buu grunted walking forward.

"I'll take that as a yes." Kakkarotto said uncrossing his arms and slipping into a combat stance. Another gust of wind blew across the soon to be battlefield causing the Sai-jin's hair to wave about lazily. And then he pushed off and shot across the expanse at Buu, a sparkling trail of gold left in his wake. As he neared Buu merely grinned. The Master's fist lanced out but the creature caught it.

Kakkarotto pulled back and lashed out with a kick to the side of Buu's head that completely caved it in. Pulling back and landing a few feet away he stared at the pink creature before him and blinked. Buu's head rippled and then reformed as he laughed. Suddenly the creature launched in and began exchanging blows with the Master at close range. Each thunderous crack from a blocked or landed blow cracked the ground beneath them, the rocks and debris around began to lift up around them as they fought.

A hard right hook from Buu sent Kakkarotto sailing backwards. As he pulled to a stop he looked up at the laughing creature and grinned. "Oh, think you're winning, do you?" Buu just smirked. "Heh heh. Well, you forget, I'm only warming up... HA!" In a flash of gold he charged through the air toward Buu once more, blue lightning sparking about his aura. The creature hadn't expected the sudden jump in power and speed and was caught completely off guard as the Master slammed a knee in his gut, a fist into his face, and then an elbow into the back of his neck that sent him down into the planet hard.

As the dust settled it revealed a pink puddle at the base of the crater. It only took a moment though, for it to reform into Buu. The short being looked up at it's opponent grinning. Kakkarotto shrugged and smirked. Buu thrust an arm up and it shot through the air extending more than a hundred yards to crack against the shocked Master's jaw. As the creature retracted it's arm it shot up through the air after the Sai-jin. Kakkarotto pulled to a stop just as Buu reached him and the two began to exchange blows again.

Down on the ground Gohan was keeping track of the fight best he could. He knew his father was still only warming up but he was a little worried. This thing was strong and from what he'd seen so far, next to impossible to kill. "Come on dad. You can beat this thing!"

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Tien was only about a foot away from landing a punch to Enzeru's stomach when he suddenly froze in mid motion and landed. "What... is that?" he wondered, focusing on what he felt.

"What's what?" Enzeru asked relaxing as she moved out of her combat stance.

The other three still chasing Bubbles paused as North Kai emerged from his small house. "What's up?" the Kai asked. He'd noticed the sudden hault to Tien and Enzeru's sparring and thought something had happened.

"I can... feel something." Tien said slowly.

"I don't feel anything." Yamcha said trying to focus.

North Kai blinked behind his glasses. He agreed with Yamcha, he couldn't sense anything either. At least, not in Otherworld. Perhaps... perhaps Tien's mental abilites were expanding thanks to the training and he was feeling something in the Mortal Realm? The Kai focused his thoughts and sensed out matters in the living world. "My word..." he said after a moment. "Kakkarotto and Majin Buu are fighting."

"You're kidding!" Krillin cried. "And Tien sensed that from here?"

North Kai nodded. "Tien's third eye isn't merely cosmetic you know. It allows for heightened mental abilities, and Ki sense is a mental technique."

"I can't train if I know their fighting." Krillin said after a moment. "Any chance we could watch the fight?"

"Sure, come place your hands on my back." The five warriors nodded and moved over to the Kai. They looked down at the battle just in time to see Kakkarotto ascend to the second level.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Bra had decided to go to the spar fully decked out. She figured her father would eventually get wind of it and it'd score her some bonus ponits she'd be cashing in before too long. So she had on her white boots, white gloves, blue body suit, and white and brown armor when she walked into Chamber 9 for her spar. She saw Trunks across the room leaning over the bleachers talking to someone in his typcial black tank top, black slacks, and black boots.

_"Probably flirting with someone who'd been training in here or something."_ she thought shaking her head as she crossed the room to her brother. As she neared, however, she picked up part of the conversation.

"... so it's been set-up. My mother finished the arrangements this morning, actually. You'll be heading out for the Gorneo project in about a week."

"R-really?" Bra froze at the sound of the voice. It was Marron!

Trunks shrugged. "Least I could do for you since you saved my life and all. You'll be put in as an observer for the first couple weeks and then the guy in charge, what's-his-face, will figure out a position for you."

"Thank-you, Master Trunks." Marron said happily.

"Trying to "sweet talk" your mate's daughter, are you?" Bra asked, finally speaking.

"Huh?" Trunks turned. "Oh, hey Bra. And no, I'm not. 18's told me Marron's strictly hands off. Not going to push the issue, she's dangerous when upset. Mom and I have been working on getting Marron a good position in Capsule Corp. and finally worked out something." The Sai-jin Prince moved over and leaned in close to his sister's ear. "Don't worry about it affecting your chances though, the project could use a serious kick in the pants so Dad's been thinking of sending one of us there anyway."

Bra couldn't think of something to say for a moment but managed to shake it off and saw that Marron had a book in her hand. "Oh, what are you reading?"

"Hm? Oh, this? It's a book on Quantam Equilibrium and Spectral Balance."

Trunks shook his head and shrugged when his sister looked back at him. "Don't look at me, it's over my head. Mom wrote it a few years ago."

Marron giggled. "It's not that complicated." she said. "Basically it boils down to everything having it's counter. For everything that exists an equal something must exist elsewhere." When she saw the look on Bra's face she laughed again. "Here, think of it this way. Master Vegeta was born with the power to transform into a Super Sai-jin, right? Well, because of that and because an equal balance must exist in the universe, Master Kakkarotto was also born with the ability to transform. It's a bare bones and basic example, but it applies. It's more complex a system where the balance could be spread out over several points. Like, the existance of the Cold Family could be the balance to Master Kakkarotto's existance."

"I... think I get it." Bra said slowly. "I remember mom saying once that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Is it the same thing?"

Marron nodded. "Basically. The theory of Quasan Stability shows that the universe is a really finite balancing act. Disrupt it even slightly and you create chaos as the balance fights to be restored. There are a few instances of such a thing happening but not many and usually only on no more than a planetary scale. But by your Mother's equations... something is pushing that balance and has been for a while."

"Oh?" Bra asked sitting down, her nervousness and spar temporarily forgotten.

Marron nodded again. "I was looking at her work the other night. Really amazing stuff. Anyway, by her calculations something is slowly tipping the balance offscale. She thinks it may have already been tipped beyond stability. In fact, she thinks that the events of three weeks ago were a result of the tipping."

"The events... you mean Cooler and Pan transforming and Goten... dying?"

The blonde girl sighed and cast her eyes down realizing she was probably bringing up wounds that hadn't healed completely yet. "Yes." she said after a moment. "And the destruction of the Earth too. She's been trying to work in the effects of it's destruction but since she doesn't know the full extent of what was actually done, death counts, power eliminations, energy disruptions, etc, she can't get a perfect model. But, with what she does have... well, I think Buu's the counter balance. He's being used by the universe to restore the order... If he can't..."

"Then what?"

"Then the universe will make another attempt." Marron said. "If we're right, anyway. It all comes down to the Natural Order."

"Enough talking, I thought we were going to spar!" Trunks called over from the middle of the room.

"Oh, sorry." Bra said turning and walking over to him and following his lead, took a fighting stance. Marron laid her book down and leaned back to watch. She'd not actually seen what any of the Masters could actually do yet. "Let's just go light." Bra said. "Keep it in base."

"Sure." Trunks said. The two siblings faced each other for a long moment, neither moving, and then they simply vanished. Marron went to look for them when suddenly a crack sounded high above her and she looked up. The sparring rooms were large areas. A hundred yards by a hundred yards, by a hundred yards. They also had gravity systems in them capable of going up to 100 times normal Saiya gravity.

About half way up to the top of the room she saw the two appear for a second and then vanish again. "This is... wow. I can't even follow them... and 18 said these two are the weakest now that Goten's gone... And they're not even transformed..." She swallowed as she took all of it in. The power these two had just in base, and the amount of power that the rest of them must have. _"Mom said she was fifty times stronger than Bra's base... that's... this is amazing. But..."_ She blinked and looked down at the book in her hand. _"The effect of all these powers... it has to be upsetting the balance to have so many people so much stronger than normal. There's only so much energy in the universe to be spread out..."_

Her thoughts were broken by a loud crack and the entire room shaking nearly knocking her off the bench. Looking around she saw Trunks on the ground not more than five yards away, the floor cracked under him. Bra floated up in the air above him grinning. "Don't let your guard down Trunks!" she called down almost laughing. "I may be a girl but I can still beat you in a fight if I want."

"Heh. You just got lucky." Trunks said sitting up and wiping a trickle of blood off his chin. "I got distracted..."

"Sure, likely excuse. Admit it, you're just no match for your little sister."

The Sai-jin prince reached up and cracked his neck. "You're forgetting which of us is stronger. Though, I'll admit, you're a lot stronger than I remember."

Bra shrugged. "I spared with Goten now and then, whenever one of us needed to burn off some steam. Usually after father did something stupid."

Trunks started laughing as he climbed to his feet. "No wonder you're so strong. Spending _that_ much time training you're probably stronger than Gohan and Kakkarotto combined." The two siblings grinned and then started laughing again.

As Bra calmed down again she brushed a few strands of hair behind her ear. "So, shall we continue? Or... are you going to give up, hmmm?"

"Not on your life." Trunks said taking his fighting stance again. "Alright, round two!" he cried launching up.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

18 stood in her formal armor watching as several dozen techs ran about the hanger prepping everything for launch. They'd have been ready for her had they known she was going anywhere prior to her appearance in the hanger. After looking into the reports on Leberion she decided to head off imedeately to deal with it. Apparently it had been taken over nearly ten years ago and in that time had resisted constantly. Not by sending it's warriors after the Empire but by sending it's latest models of battle droids, as they called them.

Apparently the earliest models from ten years before were capable of a power of about 1,000. The last model encountered, nearly six months ago, had apparently broken the 500,000 mark. Vegeta had marked it as a level 4 priority, not that high really. 18 figured his arrogance had been a deciding factor in that, personally she saw it at least as a level 2 priority. Their technology had improved considerably in just ten years and 16, not to mention Gero's latest body, were proof that machines could generate vast amounts of power. She'd feel safer knowing the chance of them coming up with something stronger than 16 had been eliminated.

When she'd announced she was leaving the techs had originally set about to prepare her saucer ship but she'd stopped that and had them preping a pod instead. The saucer ship would be a faster flight, only two days instead of seven, but the time it would take to get it ready, get a full crew set-up, and then launch, would be at least two days. That and she preferred to be alone when dealing with a mission like this one.

"Mistress 18." a tech said running up to her. "All preperations are complete. You can enter your pod and launch when ready."

"Good." the Cyborg said moving across the large room toward her pod. Part of her was worried that by the time she reached Leberion there wouldn't be an Empire to work for... but she knew that if anyone could defeat that thing it was Kakkarotto. She dropped down into the pod and closed the hatch. It only took a few seconds to log in the coordinates of Leberion and the Cyborg settled back in the pod for the trip. A moment later she was streaking away from Saiya.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Buu and Kakkarotto split apart from each other, the Sai-jin panting lightly. "I've not had... a fight like this in a long time." he said grinning. Buu just laughed. The Master relaxed slightly and his hair fell back down as he returned to base. The creature across from him tilted his head in wonder. "Hope you don't mind if I take a short break." Kakkarotto called over. "Just want to catch my breath before the battle starts for real." Buu crossed his short arms and frowned. "Oh, don't pout!" Kakkarotto called laughing. "You'll get your fight. Afterall, you want me in top condition, no?"

The pink being just shrugged. "Weeeeeakk." it managed to rasp.

This got a raised eyebrow from the Master. "Oh, think I'm weak do you? Well, you've only seen my second level transformation, I still have one left." Buu tilted his head to the other side. "Ah, got your interest do I? Well, I'm all for a demonstration. This is my base form." The Sai-jin braced and then in a flash of gold transformed. "This is level one, where I started the fight at." He braced and transformed again, blue lightning flashing around him. "Level two, the highest form you've seen. Now, give me a moment, this next one isn't as easy to reach."

Kakkarotto hunched over and let out a cry as his aura flared out massively and the planet several yards below him began to shake with the energy he was putting out. His hair began to glow and then soon his entire body was hidden by a golden glow. There was a flash and rush of wind and it stopped. The Sai-jin floated there with protruding eyebrows and long flowing waist length hair. "And this is level three. Impressed?"

"Naaaaaaaaaaaa."

"Heh heh. You will be. So, ready for round two?"

Buu uncrossed his arms and vanished. A split second later Kakkarotto vanished as well. Suddenly the sky went alight with flashes of pink and gold. They were only fractions of a second apart but filled the entire sky. The thunderous cracks that came with them rumbled across the planet and shook the ground. The warm-up was over.


	18. The Shifting Order

A/N: To go with FFnet's little "dont's" on their policy (i.e., no songfics) I've thus removed the lyrics from the previous song fic chapters. All future such chapters shall receive the same before posting here. Sorry.

_Chapter Eighteen - The Shifting Order_

"Kamehameha!" Kakkarotto cried thrusting his arms forward. The rush of energy flapped his hair straight out behind him as the blue stream shot toward Buu. The creature balled itself up to defend against the blast which soon engulfed it.

Gohan could see, from where he stood on the ground, Buu's shadow in the stream of energy as it was stretched and ripped apart. _"I don't get it... he's a lot stronger than his defensive ablitiy lets on. Maybe... maybe he doesn't even really try to defend, just lets everything hit him? I suppose he doesn't see reason to try and do more than basic blocking since he can just regenerate anyway."_

The stream of energy shrank down, blinked a few times, and then vanished into nothing as the attack ended. All that remained of Buu was a small pink blob floating in the sky. The blob rippled and then changed into a mini version of the small creature. Suddenly more pink blobs began forming along the trail the Kamehameha had taken until a good fifty of them filled the sky, each one turning into a mini Buu. All of them grinned and then mimicked the Sai-jin's earlier motions, blue energy forming between his cupped hands.

"What! No way!" Kakkarotto cried as the fifty Buus fired their own Kamehameha's at him. Quickly he raised his arms up to block the attacks. _"This thing is as good at learning new attacks as I am!"_ he thought as the energies slammed into his arms and knocked him back. As he uncrossed his arms and looked again he saw the Buus charging toward him, flying into each other and merging as they did.

By the time Buu reached him again he was completely reformed. Once more the battle resumed at close-range. Every blow landed by Kakkarotto dented and deformed Buu for a moment before it popped back to normal. Every blow landed by Buu shot waves of pain through Kakkarotto which only drove him on harder, pushed his determination higher, and drew out more and more hidden reserves of power.

A hard left from Buu sent the Master crashing down into the planet. Not waiting for him to come back up, the creature charged in after him. Gohan followed the battle with his senses still as it now continued underground, apparently they'd found a cave. Each and every blow, blocked or not, caused the entire planet to shudder. Several caused the ground to bulge up, explode completely, or simply collapse.

Gohan turned as the ground several yards behind exploded up into the air as Buu was knocked up into the sky. Kakkarotto came charging back up out of the ground as well chasing after him. The two locked into combat again slowly rising up higher and higher. Kakkarotto let out a yell as he pulled his arms back and then thrust them into Buu's face firing a stream of gold energy at him point blank.

The energy ripped off the creature's head and drove him away. As the energy faded Buu's shoulders rippled and a new head sprouted. Buu glared at his opponent and frowned which caused Kakkarotto to laugh. "What's the matter, not used to fighting someone almost as strong as you?" he asked grinning.

Buu's frown turned into a scowl as he held out his arms, palms facing the Master. "Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" it roared as pink energy flashed around it's palms and then shot forth. The energy beam was massive and surged across the planet nearly a hundred yards up and _still_ the ground buckled, collapsed, and was torn apart by the force of the beam. On the ground Gohan uncrossed his arms as it ended and stared up in wonder and shock at the attack. His worry about his father's safety only lasted a moment though.

When the attack ended Buu lowered his arms and started laughing. A massive trench had been gouged out along the planet and there was no sign of his opponent. "Oh? Did I miss a joke?" Kakkarotto asked from only a couple feet behind Buu, arms crossed, and grinning. Buu turned slowly to look, the shock on his face evident. But that soon faded into another scowl. "You really shouldn't waste energy like that." Kakkarotto said cracking his neck.

_"I don't think he did..." _Gohan realized as he felt out the powers above him. _"Buu's energy is still at the exact same level it was when he fired that attack. Damn... his energy must be infinite! Dad's is already going down, at this rate he won't win this fight... not on his own."_

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Xeno stood in front of the Cryostasis Chamber that contained Brolly staring in through the glass window at the Sai-jin. He was tempted to try and thaw him here and now, find out what exactly was going on. But he had a feeling that wouldn't be a wise idea. "Just what was it that happened 53 years ago? Hmm? What is it that's being hidden? What secrets are you hiding?"

"Here." Everfrost said walking up to him and holding out a cup of coffee.

With a nod Xeno took the cup. "What do you make of all this so far?" he asked after a moment.

"I don't know. Conspiracy theories have never been my forte." Everfrost replied. "I just find it hard to believe that there is one."

"Well..." Rain said walking over to join them. "It's not that far-fetched a possibility really. I've always figured that the Masters would eventually tear apart from the inside. Think about it. Frieza and Cooler's egos are as big as any Sai-jins. If they ever surpassed Master Kakkarotto I know they'd take over. The only thing holding them back from destroying Saiya outright and letting the Sai-jins suffocate is..."

"Kuriiza."

Rain nodded. "With Master Frieza's son buried on Saiya it's a safe bet the Changelings wouldn't want to destroy the planet. It's probably why Master Vegeta offered to have the young Changeling buried there after his death. Changelings have an odd sense of family loyalty and responsibility. Master Cooler and Master Frieza hate each other but neither has done anything to the other because they are family. It goes against their code."

"Hey guys, I'm in!" Eve called over her shoulder. The three by the Cryostasis Chamber glanced at each other and then moved over to where Eve was, Storm coming over to join them. The four leaned down to gaze at the computer monitor. "Which should we look at first? Brolly's or Kakkarotto's?" she asked with a glance.

"Let's see Brolly's first." Storm suggested.

The Nezorf nodded and, with a few clicks, opened up Brolly's birth records. "Let's see. Born on Feburary 3rd, Age 737, at 4:15 AM. Birth power recorded at 14,984. Parents Paragus and Rhubara. Blood type O. Nothing seems unusual here." she said, a bit disappointed.

"Why, then, would the records be sealed?" Storm wondered.

"There must be _something_ in there. Somewhere." Rain said, looking closer at the screen. "Here, what's this?" she asked, pointing to a small symbol at the bottom of the file.

"No clue." replied the Nezorf, moving the cursor down to click on it. The file on screen was replaced then by a new file with the word **Restricted** emblazed in big bold letters at the top. "Oh, the medical records." Eve said, scrolling down the page. "What's this?"

"Find something?" Everfrost asked, trying to make heads or tails out of the text but unable. He didn't know how to read Sai-jin, only English and Galactic.

"During his exam right after birth Brolly's power spiked up twice. Once to 23,485 and once to 72,167." Eve said, reading slowly to make sure she got it right. "It also mentions an unknown abnormality in his genetic make-up..."

"What kind of abnormality?" Rain asked.

Eve shook her head. "I don't know the word. My Sai-jin is rusty. Here, I'll copy it out and print just that. We can ask one of the crew later." She copied the word over into a file and printed it out quickly. That done she scanned the document some more. "I don't see anything else unusual. The power spikes and the abnormality must be the reason for the file seal. At least for Brolly, let's look into Kakkarotto's file..."

The others watched as she closed Brolly's records and opened Master Kakkarotto's. It was Rain that read the first lines of text. "Born on Feburary 3rd, Age 737, at 4:15 AM." she glanced at the others then, before speaking again. "What the hell? They weren't just born on the same day but at the same time? Freaky."

Eve picked up the reading there. "What else is here? Birth power recorded at 202. Parents Bardock and Seripa. Blood type O. Ok, that's weird. Same birth time and blood type..." Looking down she saw the same symbol at the bottom and clicked it. Once again the medical records appeared. "Shit."

"What is it?" Xeno asked.

"During his Exam Kakkarotto displayed three spikes of power. One of 354, one of 582, and one of 5,274." Eve said slowly, shocked at the power spikes. Especially the last one. "And here it is again, Kakkarotto's got the same abnormality." She leaned back and stared at the screen. "That must be it then. The power spikes and the abnormality."

"We need to find out what that abnormality is." Everfrost said, picking up the print-out and looking at the word. "So far we still don't have any answers for what the hell is going on, it'd be nice to have at least one."

"I'll go ask." Storm said. "I'm the strongest, I'll intimidate them more." The others all nodded and watched as she left.

Xeno knelt down beside Eve and rubbed his chin in thought. "You're in their entire system, right?" he asked. The Nezorf nodded. "Could you see if there are records on the Tinto incident? No, wait, pull up Bardock's service record. Even if he was rushing around the Regen Tanks have scouters built in. There should be some record of his final power level."

Eve nodded and set to work on that. It only took her a moment to locate Bardock's birth and service records. The information in the birth records was extremely simple. Back at the time detailed records and tests weren't made. A disappointment to them as they were hoping to learn if he'd possessed the same abnormality as his son. Still, Xeno had been right about the service record.

"Look, it does have his power reading from his stay on Master Cold's ship." Eve said pointing. Once again the text was in Sai-jin so it took her a moment to read through it in her mind. "No. Fucking. Way."

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Bulma was thankful for some time alone again, even it was the result of a threat to the entire Empire. Vegeta had been... persistant for the last two weeks. She didn't mind as much now as she had at first, Vegeta had slowly grown on her over the years. But she was getting old, her stamina wasn't quite what it used to be, and Vegeta had noticed. Bulma wasn't exactly thrilled with the Sai-jin King's idea of a fix to the issue.

After he'd worn her out he always went out hunting for another woman, which didn't take long because a Sai-jin of one gender could easily smell a horny Sai-jin of the opposite gender when they were out prowling like that. According to palace gossip, and she didn't doubt the validity of it in the least, he'd gone through twenty six women the day before the discovery of the creature on Endevon. That was, of course, not counting her.

Bulma shook her head and frowned, there was no use stewing over Vegeta's... over-active sex drive. There were some things about Sai-jins that just couldn't be changed. She'd even noticed Kakkarotto looking around at the palace women again. The blue haired woman was begining to wonder how much longer she and Chi-Chi would actually be remaining in the palace. Both of them were getting old, their beauty fading. Kakkarotto's roaming eyes were proof enough of that.

"How long until we're just discarded, I wonder?" She shook her head to clear it. No sense worrying about that. When it came, it came. She'd gotten used to that idea shortly after Trunks had been born. Turning her focus back to the chalkboard before her she gazed along it's length going over her calculations in her head. Thanks to Vegeta's persistance the last two weeks she'd not had the time to actually work on her equation in that time. Either busy with him or sleeping off the exhaustion.

She still wasn't sure what to factor in for the destruction of Earth, and then the entire Earth System. Not to mention the destruction of Endevon and it's system the previous day. Endevon was a bit easier, the world population was recorded there at about 48 million. Total power on the world was somewhere around 150 million. They had no records of the Earth population anymore. Too many people lived underground there. And the power levels... well, since the primary powers could supress their strength there was no record of that either.

"So what should I do about Earth?" she wondered to herself. "If I just guess I could be way off, and that would throw off my calculations. If I don't factor it in at all then I can't complete my calculations." She looked over what she had so far and then a thought hit her. Moving over to a nearby palace console she brought up the video of the previous day's meeting and listened to it play back. "One and a half billion." she said softly. "That was Master Kakkarotto's estimate of Buu's power."

Going back to the calculations she factored in everything she had so far and determined the amount of power displacement that had occured prior to the Earth's destruction. "That can't be right..." she thought. "The destruction of the Earth itself would have caused a displacement of about ten thousand, not counting energies that were destroyed. But the model says that it adds up. How can that work?" She double-checked it quickly, to make sure she had added the absorption and release factors for the death and two transformations three weeks previous but they were there.

Quickly she moved along the chalk board to an open space and started another equation. Writing this out would make sure her brain wasn't goofing up the math. As she went, the chalk clicked against the bored faster and faster, her writing intensified quickly. A moment later the equation was complete, the math finished. And the result was the same. Just short of one and a half billion. Factor in the displacement of the Earth and you would have just over one and a half billion.

"But that... that would mean that..." Her breath caught in her throat as she stared at the numbers before her. The meaning of the numbers rung loudly in her mind. A small smile formed but faded almost instantly. Quickly she erased the small equation and moved back to her large one. The chalk moved quickly as she added in what she'd just learned, the data expanding on other elements of the model, and in moments it was up to date with the current time. The current total of displacement was about 1.7 billion.

As she sat the chalk down and glanced at the part of the equation that represented Earth she silently thanked Kami that she was the only one in the palace that could understand the model. Moving back to her seat she sat down and just stared at the chalk board, a small smiling forming on her face. _"No one can ever say that we aren't a resourceful race."_ she thought. _"Slipped right out from under Frieza's nose without even being seen. I have to find a way to let 18 and Marron know. The Humans managed to survive somehow."_

Gazing over the entire length of the equation, which itself split into several equations along it's length, she bit her lip. By her model this Buu creature was a result of the displacement that had been occuring. She wasn't sure how to factor it in, however. It had been created thousands of years ago so it's presence existed from the beginning. Had it thrown the universe off balance upon creation? Had it's distortion been quelled by the passage of time? Or was there still some distortion out there from it, adding to what had been created in more recent years?

Or had it's creation been a different way? Had it absorbed and stablized the universe, instead of displacing things? She knew the Master's displaced and absorbed nearly equal amounts of energy. 16, 17, 18, 19, and Gero didn't displace or absorb anything as they didn't use Ki but a synthetic form of energy which they generated and which was dispersed upon use. But what of Buu? It was Ki he used, but it wasn't Ki he'd produced. Based on what she'd seen of the creature's creation it was energy that existed already and was simply drawn into a new focus.

"How do you factor something like that in?" she wondered. "Perhaps... perhaps I should do two equations from this point? No, two isn't enough." She looked at the dozens of free chalk boards around the room. "I'll need to do four, at least. Each of the possible effects that Buu's existance could have had on the universe." As she went to get up her mind did some quick calculations and she froze. "By Kami, I hope that's not the way it worked." she muttered.

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Marron couldn't believe it as she watched the two of them going at it high above her. They were nothing but blurs to her now as they fought. And yet they weren't even really trying that hard. Suddenly a loud crack sounded as Bra landed a solid blow to her brother's chest knocking him backward. "Woohoo!" Marron cheered. "Go Bra!"

Unbeknownst to the blonde girl on the ground, high up in the sky Bra blushed slightly. Her eyes locked onto Trunks' and she grinned, her brother swallowing lightly. He was the superior in strength because he trained more, but Bra. Bra was the superior in skill spending most of her time doing katas and such to work on her form and keep herself in shape. He knew that in a full-out fight, a serious match, she could do some good damage and possibly even win, so long as they remained in base.

And by that grin and that look in her eyes. Trunks had the distinct impression that Bra was intrested in doing just that. And he knew exactly why. Marron's cheer. Bra felt like showing off, impressing the other girl. _"Well, sorry sis, I'm not going to just let you embarress me so you can impress her."_ he thought, smirking. Bra understood the look easily enough. Her brother wasn't going to back down, he'd take her challange.

Suddenly both Hybrids vanished from Marron's sight. Thunderous crashes and bright flashes flared up throughout the room. First at one side and then other. The blonde stared up in amazement as she tried to watch but couldn't. She couldn't even see either of them move now. Not even their blurs as they arced through the sky. "Incredible."

"Finish Buster!" Trunks' voice echoed suddenly, as he appeared near the top of the room only feet from the far left wall. The golden orb of energy flared up over his head and then he thrust it toward his sister.

Bra appeared a second later, landing on the floor feet from the far right wall. Her arms moved rapidly before her as Trunks attack neared quickly. And then she thrust her arms up toward the attack. "Burning Attack!" she called. Her attack surged up at the other even faster than Trunks' attack was coming toward her. They impacted a few yards short of the center of the room and then exploded.

"Copy cat!" Trunks called down through the glare, as the thunderous sound of the explosion faded. "Using my move against me."

"Not quite." Bra said, her voice right beside his left ear. His eyes widened in shock but before he could do anything she had her arms and legs wrapped around him, restraining him. There was a flash of purple around her and she arced through the air diving toward the ground. Only feet above the ground there was a flash of gold as Trunks transformed, using the sudden rush of powre to escape. But it soon faded as he reverted to base and landed softly on the ground, Bra coming down to land a few feet away.

"Cheater!" she called, sticking out her tongue.

"Sorry Bra, I got enough of a pounding from dad a few weeks ago. I don't feel like spending even another hour in one of those damned tanks."

Marron saw the other girl push off but then, once more, she was gone from sight. Trunks followed suit a moment later. The blonde looked up at the sound of a loud crack and saw the two siblings high in the sky, fists pressed against each other. They floated that way for a second and then started attacking and dodging again. Suddenly the Princess pulled back, thrust her arms forward, and fired off a volley of energy blasts at her brother.

The Prince smirked and began swatting them away easily as they neared him. Bra's assualt ended a second later, as her eyes widened in fear. "No! Marron!" she cried. One of the deflected energy blasts was surging down straight towards the Human girl. In a burst of gold Bra transformed and surged toward the girl but she didn't think she'd be fast enough.

And then she felt it, as did Trunks. A blue glow formed around the girl and then flared up. Her power shot up through the roof. And then the golden orb of Ki reached her and exploded harmlessly. Bra landed in front of her a second later, the girl's aura and power already gone. Trunks just stared down at her in complete shock. His mind trying to comprehend what he'd just felt. _"She's... only a Human. But... her power... it was at least equal with Gohan's base power. How is that possible?"_

Marron and Bra were still just starring at each other, both in shock, but not for the same reason. Suddenly Marron leapt forward the last few inches between them and wrapped her arms around Bra. "That was so close. Thank-you Bra." she said, holding her tight.

_"Thank-you? What did I... she thinks that I stopped the attack? She doesn't even realize that she..."_ Her thoughts trailed off as she realized, then, that Marron was hugging her. Her face went red again as she slowly wrapped her arms around the other girl for a moment. Breaking apart she shook her head. "It's nothing. 18 wouldn't have liked it if you were killed cause of my brother and I being careless." she said, laughing lightly, and deciding it best the girl not realize she'd saved herself.

Trunks recovered as he caught the exchange, realizing the same as his sister. He landed gently beside the two. "Marron, why don't you head to your room, lay down for a bit. You're shaking."

The girl looked down at herself and noticed that she was, in fact, shaking. Badly. "G-good idea." she said after a moment.

Just as she reached the door Bra called out. "Hold on, wait there! You look like you're about to fall over, I'll help you in a second."

Turning back to her brother she locked eyes with him for a moment. He could see her entire arguement in her eyes but he shook his head and spoke softly. "You know what father said. He's to be told, immediately, if anything unusual happens with her. This counts."

"But... Trunks. You know what he'll do!" she pleaded.

"Maybe." he said. "But maybe not. We can't hide it from him forever. Her power could flare up again later, and then he'll find out about this and we'll be the one's facing the consequences. Especially me, since I'm older." He stared at her for a moment, looking into her eyes. "Alright. Alright. I wont tell him."

Bra practically knocked him over as she hugged him. "Thank-you Trunks." The Prince pulled back and frowned at her. She knew she wasn't acting much like a Sai-jin but at the moment she didn't care.

With a sigh Trunks walked off. He gave Marron a quick glance on his way out but she didn't notice. _"Sorry Bra."_ Trunks thought as he left the room. _"But father needs to know."_

Bra stood in silence for a moment before heading off trying to compose herself again. She didn't want anyone to suspect that anything was up. Taking a deep breath she made her way over to the still shaking girl and started helping her through the halls to her room.

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Buu and his father were still going at it as fiercely as ever. Gohan couldn't believe it. His father's power would dip down for a bit and then suddenly he'd go right back to full strength. The Sai-jin kept pulling on power reserves that he just shouldn't have had. Not that it was that unusual a feat for his father, or even him, but it was still amazing to witness.

A hard right hook from Buu smashed into Kakkarotto's head knocking him down through a mountain and into the planet once more. Buu surged down at him passing into the new cave opening. Once again the fight had gone underground. The powerful Sai-jin was already on his feet by the time the creature reached him and they began to exchange blows once again. _"I can't believe how fast and strong this thing is."_ Kakkarotto thought just barely dodging a kick.

He came back up and landed a knee to the pink blob's gut before spinning and snapping a heel kick into his head completely deforming it. He didn't give the creature a chance to recover as he slammed a fist into it's chest and then grabbed the odd antenna atop its head, spun around, and threw it into the cave wall. Thrusting his arms out he fired a Ki blast after it. It impacted and exploded, the entire cave shaking. And then the ceiling came tumbling down, the ground above collapsing into a massive canyon.

Kakkarotto floated back up above the surface again panting lightly. His energy had dipped down again and this time it wasn't going back up. In fact, it was dropping constantly, slowly, and steadily now. The strain of maintaining the form was starting to take its toll. Gohan held his breath for a moment, without even realizing it. Buu had just surged back up into battle and his father's power was declining even faster now.

He tensed, ready to transform, and then collapsed to one knee holding his left side. An intense pain was lancing through his body, lights swimminig before his eyes. _"Damn it, not now!"_ his mind screamed through the pain. _"What the hell is wrong with me?"_ Clenching his eyes shut he fought against the urge to pass out. A moment later the pain and spasms faded away and he got back up onto his feet.

"Gero better find out what the hell is wrong with me soon, and fix it." he muttered. And then, in a flash of gold, his power shot up rapidly, nearly matching his father's. Both warriors paused in their battle to look at the new power as Gohan shot up toward them. Buu grinned as Gohan reached his father and the two Sai-jins began to attack him together. Kakkarotto's power had dipped noticeably, though it was still higher than his son's. Even so, the two warriors were still having a difficult time against the pink creature.


	19. Questions and Answers

_Chapter Nineteen - Questions and Answers_

Storm made her way through the dingy, dimly lit, and rusty halls of the old ship following the information on her scouter. The nearest of the crew was a good five hundred feet from the hold she and the others were in. Apparently her and her sister had done a good job intimidating the crew into staying away. Better than she'd anticipated. Smirking to herself she continued to zero in on the power on her scouter, only 17,315.

A moment later she rounded a corner and there her target was. A female Sai-jin in the old shoulder fin model blue and black armor, she was busy working on some exposed wires in the hall corridor, meaning she was part of the maintenance staff. She had her pitch black hair pulled back into a wild ponytail that hung down to her waist. Her black eyes were locked on the wires before her and she wore no scouter so she'd yet to notice the other's presence.

Storm paused a moment longer, looking the woman over. She was rather short, no more than 4 foot 10 at the most. Her short height made her curves stand out even more and a small smile spread across her lips. Perhaps this journey wouldn't be as boring as she'd thought. Eve was cute, sure, but the whole temperature thing with the Nezorfs made anything with her more hassle than it was worth. _"Sai-jins appreciate power. I'll see if I can get her to go along with this willingly. If not, well, I am stronger than anyone else on this ship."_ she thought.

With a smirk still on her lips she moved the last couple of steps forward to the short Sai-jin and cleared her throat. The woman didn't even bother to look. "In case you're blind, I'm busy." she said, still working. Storm cleared her throat again. "Damn it, get lost." the Sai-jin growled, still not looking. She let out a startled cry a second later as one of her shoulder fins was grabbed and she was spun around violently.

Storm then grabbed the front of the woman's armor, pulled her a little closer, then turned toward the wall and pushed the Sai-jin back against it lifting her up the couple inches to eye level in the process. "You should know who you're talking to before you start barking orders." Storm nearly growled. She'd spent enough time around Sai-jins to know how they operated. Intimidation and shows of power got you everywhere with them.

And, thanks to the fact that Wathor's had noses as powerful as any Sai-jin, she could smell the fear coming from the woman she currently had pressed against the wall. She couldn't help but smirk to herself as she detected the scent. Wathors were as much about conquest as the Sai-jins, though they could control themselves considerably better, and having a Sa-jin afraid of you was quite the conquest. Even if you were considerably stronger. Sai-jins had a penchant for not fearing anything.

Just as Storm began to think that, perhaps, this particular conquest would be too easy, the scent of fear faded away noticeably, though it still remained. The terror in the other woman's eyes also vanished, replaced now with anger and arrogance. _"Ah, typical Sai-jin I see. This should be entertaining."_ She leaned in a little closer, so that their noses were practically touching. "You're scared, I can smell it."

"Of you? Never." the other replied.

Storm chuckled. "Don't bother trying to hide it. I can smell it on you clear as day. My nose is as good as yours, possibly even better." She took a couple of dip sniffs. "For example, you had..." she paused for a second, evaluating the smell. "Ah, Human food, steak by the scent of it, for lunch today. And at least a quart of Sai-jin Wine. I can also smell four other Sai-jins on you. All of them male... yes, I know that distinct smell. You were busy last night I see."

The Sai-jin growled and tried to push the other woman off of her but was nowhere near strong enough. Storm moved a bit and sniffed the woman's hair. "I can see how you got four of them last night though." she said in her ear softly. That prompted more struggles but still got her nowhere. Moving back a little Storm shook her head and laughed. "Please, my power level is over fifty thousand. You couldn't even scratch me. So knock it off and save us both the time." The Sai-jin scowled at her but settled down. "Good. Now, first things first, who are you?"

"I am Zukina, the head of ship maintenance." the Sai-jin replied, keeping her black eyes locked onto Storm's own red eyes.

_"Head of maintenance eh? That means the only people you talk to all day is the maintenance staff. Which means you're not used to dealing with those stronger than yourself. That explains the thick fear scent earlier."_ Storm thought quickly, before continuing. "Good. I'm Storm, head of security for Cargo Bay 6." she made the statement merely to stress that she was the stronger of the two sisters that had boarded on Geozan 7. "Now, I assume you can read Sai-jin, yes?"

"Of course, I'm not an idiot!"

The Wathor smirked. "Good." she let go of her and took a step back. "My comrades and I were working on something, unfortunately it's partly in Sai-jin and only one of us knows any, and not that much of it." She held up the paper with the word printed on it. "What's this?"

Zukina took the sheet of paper and glanced at it. "It's a compounded word, I can see why your friend wouldn't have known it. It's not going to be found in any dictionary. What's this from?"

"None of your business. What is it?"

"Well, the first part means 'Constant' and the second is an old archaic word for 'Zenkai'." she said. "Whoever wrote this must have needed a new word to describe whatever they were talking about."

"Constant Zenkai?" Storm said softly, curious. "Why would they need to make a new word for something like that?"

The Sai-jin shrugged. "There's a few possibilites, depending on where you found this..." Storm shook her head silently saying she wouldn't tell. The woman sighed. "Well, I can guess easily enough. The archaic language is typcially only used for medical terms. I suppose if someone was born with or developed a condition where they were constantly experiencing the effects of a Zenkai a term would be needed for it."

Storm's eyes narrowed slightly. "Is that possible?"

"Never heard of it happening. Hence why there's no word for it." Zukina said, handing back the paper. "Though, I suppose, it could be possible for such a thing to occur."

"How exactly does a Zenkai work?" Storm asked. "I know it makes a Sai-jin stronger after healing..."

"The more severe the injury the greater the increase to a Sai-jin's power. There's other factors, too. The Sai-jin's own power at the time they were hurt, the strength of the other person as determined by the amount of damage caused by each blow, and some other stuff. It's all fueled by a chemical released from what remains of our Oozaru gland, at the base of the tail bone. That's what boosts a Sai-jin's strength and is also used for healing and mending purposes by the body."

"So, then, someone who had this 'Constant Zenkai', if such a thing is possible, would have a constant flow of this chemcial into their bodies?"

Zukina nodded. "Basically. And not only would it be slowly and constantly giving them more power but it'd make them far more resiliant too. They'd be able to handle more strain to their bodies, take more damage than normal, that kind of thing. Though, under normal conditions, if you over expose yourself to the chemical the body will, eventually, quit reacting to it, thus preventing any further Zenkai's from occuring. I suppose, if the release was at a low enough level, that would never occur, even with a constant flow."

"Could there be any... adverse side-effects to something like this?"

The Sai-jin woman looked the other over for a moment. Neither she nor anyone else on the ship had any clue why they'd picked up the small group on Geozan 7. They'd received orders directly from Dr. Gero himself to go there, retrieve the group and their cargo, and transport them to Saiya. She'd been one of the few to see their 'cargo' and had been rather curious about it. She figured then that it was probably one of Gero's experiments and now, with this person asking these questions, she was almost sure of it.

She could definitely see Dr. Gero and the Masters looking into ways of creating such an effect as this. But, if these people were doing such a thing... then why wouldn't she know the word? And why would only one of them know Sai-jin? And only vaguely at that? Some things didn't quite add up. She wasn't exactly sure what to make of it but she had a feeling it was something she wasn't supposed to know anyway. "I haven't got a clue." she said at last. "No one's ever experienced a Zenkai while in perfect health before. I suppose... if the amount of the chemical was high enough... there could be some problems."

"Like?"

Zukina shrugged. "Hell if I know. I'm not a medical expert. I fix machines, not people."

Storm sighed. "Right. Well, at least this wasn't a complete waste of time." She glanced down at the paper again as she turned to go and then paused. She wasn't exactly sure how to press the other issue that had come up, upon meeting the woman. She had a feeling, from the presence of only male scent on her, that that was all she was interested in. So she doubted she'd be all that willing to divulge the location of her quarters. The Captain, however... Grinning to herself Storm made her way back toward the cargo bay.

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"What is it Eve?" Everfrost asked as he saw the look of complete disbelief on her face.

Eve took a deep breath and read off the last Regen Tank status record. "Age 743, April 8th, 2:54 PM. Recovery of Bardock complete. Service record update, new power reading..." she paused, still absorbing it herself. "3,025,987."

"Over... three million?" Rain asked shocked. Even the Prince hadn't been that strong back then, barring his SSJ form. "But that would mean that Brolly's power would had to have been that high too! How is that possible?"

"You know more about power than me." Eve said, turning to look at the Wathor. "How much stronger would Brolly have needed to be for Bardock to have had trouble?"

"To the level that he did on Tinto? I'd say around four million or so would be enough." she said. "But... that can't be possible. Brolly was only six years old! It'd be one thing for him to have been in the five to six hundred thousand range, Prince Vegeta was stronger than that at birth, and the head of the Saiya Palace Guard is at around two million, but for Brolly to have been over three million at age six?"

Xeno nodded. "There's definitely something big going on here. Why would Bardock's power be hidden from the public? How did Brolly get so powerful? Why were Brolly and Master Kakkarotto's records sealed? Who exactly gave the orders to do all of this?"

"King Vegeta was still alive when the two of them were born. It's entirely possible he had the files sealed." Eve said thoughtfully. "That seems the most likely event. Master Vegeta was still only a child then."

"By your standards." Rain interrupted. "Master Vegeta was five at the time the records were sealed. Which meant he was old enough for missions and to give orders. He could have done it without his father even knowing."

"Why would he?" Eve asked, looking at the other woman again. "What reason would a five year old have to be involved in a conspiracy?"

Everfrost sighed. "We're talking about the Sai-jins, here, anything is possible. Think about it, Master Vegeta was raised as a royal, a member of the strongest Sai-jin blood-line. He was taught that he would be the most powerful Sai-jin alive and that only the powerful rule. Look at how strong Brolly was as a child, at how strong Master Kakkarotto is now. He may have been five but Master Vegeta could have understood the power represented by the two other Sai-jins."

Xeno nodded in agreement. "Right, and as the heir to the Sai-jin throne, he wouldn't have wanted that. He wouldn't have wanted, or allowed, anyone to become stronger than himself. Remember, that's how Master Vegeta's family took the throne in the first place. They grew more powerful than the old king and overthrew him."

Eve leaned back and stared at the monitor as she thought. "So, Master Vegeta would have sealed the records to hide the fact that these two could actually pose a threat to him... but then what? I mean, if that's what happened, how come the two weren't killed instantly?"

"Study, perhaps?" Rain ventured. "They may have wanted to understand why they were a threat. The abnormality, the power spikes. Or maybe it was learned too late. You know what Sai-jin record keeping was like before the Androids came along. It took them months to file anything. By then Master Kakkarotto would have already been sent out..."

Eve interrupted at that point. "Wasn't there a power surge on Saiya that year? The 'Week of Night' as they called it. The entire grid shut down for a week."

Xeno nodded. "Right, yes, they were testing the new drive system they'd developed and overloaded the entire network. They lost anything that had been saved during the last 48 hours, including mission orders. That's how they lost Master Kakkarotto's location." He started pacing around as he thought. "Alright, so, they lost Master Kakkarotto's location because of that power loss issue, but they still had Brolly's, obviously. Paragus and Brolly vanished, what, a week later?"

"I think." Everfrost said. "The history records say he'd started planning to overthrow the King then. What-if, in truth, he learned about the danger his son was in? Sai-jins don't really love their kids like other races, but they have a strong family attachment just the same."

"Eve, try and find some records on Tinto." Xeno said, returning to where the others were. "We need more information."

The Nezorf was just about to comply when Storm's voice sounded from the doorway. "I found out what we wanted to know." she said, walking toward them waving the paper. "The Sai-jin I talked to said it's not an established word, not something you'd find in the dictionary. Apparently it's a compound word using the archaic word for "Zenkai" and the word for "constant" as a pre-fix."

"What the hell?" Eve asked, scrunching her face up. "Archaic Sai-jin is only used in medical terms and such."

"That's what she said." Storm said with a nod as she reached them. "Which fits with where we found it. Apparently, it appears, Brolly and Master Kakkarotto have a new medical condition. A constant Zenkai. From what the Sai-jin said it would mean their powers would be constantly and steadily increasing."

"Shit, that explains Brolly." Xeno said looking over to the cryostasis chamber.

"What do you mean?" Storm asked.

"Bardock's power on Tinto was over three million." her sister informed her. "Which means that Brolly was, assuming that is who Bardock was fighting which I'm starting to doubt, stronger." Rain looked over at her sister, picking up the obvious scent, and shook her head. "And I was wondering what took you so long." she stated. "You're as bad as the Sai-jins at times, can't control yourself, can you?"

The others glanced back at the two women confused as they held their own conversation. "Jealous sis?" Storm asked with a smirk.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Bra couldn't help it as they moved through the halls. Her face felt like it was burning and she was sure she must look sunburned, if not worse. But it was just sinking in for Marron, how close she'd come to dying, and it wasn't having a calming effect on her. The poor girl's legs were like jell-o as she tried to walk, meaning she was leaning heavily on the Princess for support. Having her that close, being able to pick up the other girl's scent so clearly, the smell of it laced in with her own scent, it was almost more than she could handle.

"Whoa!" Marron cried, nearly falling over. Bra reached out and wrapped an arm around her without thinking and held her up. "Thanks." the blonde breathed. "This is... embarrasing... I... I can u-usually walk o-on my o-own."

"But you don't usually come that close to a Ki attack of that power." Bra said. As the girl stumbled again the Hybrid cursed her emotions and her body and decided, no matter how she might react to the new accomodations, trying to walk with Marron like this was getting them nowhere fast. They'd get back to Marron and 18's shared room much faster if she carried the other girl. So, with one swift motion, and trying not to think about it much, she lifted the blonde girl off her feet and held her cradled in her arms.

"Oh... I... thanks." she said, a bit startled.

Bra swallowed and fought to keep her voice steady as she spoke. "No problem. This is faster." Now that they weren't moving at a near crawl it only took them a few more mintues to reach the room. Pushing the door open with her foot Bra moved inside and then closed it the same way. She then moved over to the bed and set the still shaking girl down gently.

"Oh, damn it." Marron muttered. "I forgot my book."

"I'll send someone to get it later." Bra said, taking a seat in one of the chairs by the bed. She sat there, eyes locked on Marron, biting her lip. The other girl had laid back and was staring at the ceiling breathing a little raggedly as she tried to calm her nerves. Bra's own nerves were acting up now as well. After what had happened earlier she was worried. Trunks had said he wouldn't say anything and she trusted him, so that didn't have her worried anymore.

But she was worried that something like that might happen again, with her father around this time. If that happened... well, she knew what he'd most likely do. That is, if Marron was still just an outsider at the time. Now she had a reason to make her move sooner, rather than later, and more than just her emotions rode on the other girl's feelings. But it all came back to the same thing. She actually had to bring the matter up.

She took a deep breath, stealing her resolve, and came out of her deep thoughts to find that Marron had sat back up and was looking her way. She felt her face flush insantly but used all of her self control to push it away. Opening her mouth to speak she found that she couldn't, the words caught in her throat. So she was rather happy when Marron spoke instead. "Is everything ok? You looked like you were zoned out there a minute ago."

Bra nodded, still not sure what to say exactly. "I... I was... thinking." she said slowly before biting her lip again. "By the Kais, this is harder than I expected." she said nearly jumping up as she climbed back to her feet. Her last two relationships had been a lot easier to get into than this! Of course, her first relationship hadn't really been a real relationship. She'd only been twelve and 17 had only been humoring her really. And Goten... Goten she'd just sort of levitated too, and he'd done the same with her. It had just... happened.

Pan and 18 had only been crushes that she'd never really acted on and had outgrown. Well, no, she never had outgrown her crush on 18, but the Cyborg woman had no intrest in other women. She'd learned that through careful probing and idle conversation years ago, before the woman had gotten together with her brother even. As she turned to look toward Marron again she worried that, perhaps, she'd be the same.

It wasn't her own feelings she was worried about hurting now, it was the danger Marron would be in when her father learned of her power if she wasn't with one of the Masters. If she became her girlfriend though, her father would most likely let the matter alone. Keep a close eye on it, yes, but leave it alone for the most part, because she'd be considered part of the family. _"You know what? Screw it. If it turns out she's not interested in women, or just not interested in me, I'll tell her the truth. I'll tell her the danger, talk her into pretending."_ she thought.

With another deep sigh she opened her mouth again and fought to say what was still sticking in her throat. With a groan of frustration she turned around in a huff and smacked her head lightly against the wall. The blonde girl looked at her curiously, not sure why, exactly, she was acting so unusual. "Is... something wrong?" she asked after a moment.

"No." Bra said, not turning around, just leaning with her forehead pressed against the wall. "Not... wrong. Just... frustrating." She turned around and moved over to the bed, sitting down beside the other girl. She didn't look at her, however, but at her own hands in her lap. "I... well, you see..." She bit her lip again trying to phrase her words right. When she spoke again her words came out in a rush. "I had crush on Pan at one time. And I still have something of one on 18 too."

She looked up, turning her gaze toward Marron. She had to see the other's reaction, see her face, her eyes, when she told her. "When I first saw you my mind was preoccupied with Goten's situation but I still noticed. I still noticed even then that I... that I..." Her words caught in her throat again and she couldn't find a way to get them out. Frustrated that she couldn't say what she wanted she decided that the best course would be to show what she meant.

She leaned in slowly toward Marron, it felt like an eternity passed, like the world was moving in slow motion. Her breath caught in her throat as soon as she felt her lips brush Marron's. And then she was kissing her. The blonde was clearly shocked by the rather sudden kiss as her eyes went wide as soon as their lips touched. Bra noted, however, that the girl didn't try to pull away. She wasn't sure if that was due to her shock or not, though.

She held the kiss for a long moment, an instant in time that felt an eternity and yet ended all too soon. Pulling back she looked at the clearly flustered girl, her blue eyes wide as saucers still, and glazed over. Bra swallowed. "I... That's what... I was trying to say." she said slowly. Marron still didn't speak, just kept her eyes on Bra's. The Princess reached out tenatively and rested her hand on the blonde's. "I don't know if... if it's just a crush or... or something more."

Bra turned her eyes away from Marron's now, no longer sure she wanted to see the other girl's reaction. "I would like to... find out though. I mean, if you... if you feel the same... that is." She turned her eyes back to Marron's again, she couldn't take not knowing and she was sure Marron's eyes would answer before her voice. She could see a wash of emotions run through Marron's eyes, a wave of thoughts and feelings. Over it all the shock and confusion was there. _"Maybe that... wasn't the best way to do it."_ Bra thought, biting her lip again.

Still, she noticed that the Human's hand hadn't moved out from under hers. Another thought came to the Hybrid then, one that made her panic a little. "Marron, don't think you have to say yes... just because I'm Master." she said, a little faster than she wanted. "I don't... I don't want that. Kakkarotto and Gohan and dad may not care but... I do. If you say yes to me, I want it to be because you want to."

Marron blinked, a million thoughts going through her mind. She'd never... really considered being with another girl. But then, she'd always been so busy with her life, so wrapped up in her studies, that she never really considered being with anyone. No girlfriends, no boyfriends, no secret crushes, none of that. She wasn't really sure... what to say. She sat there, thinking about it, looking at Bra and thinking.

To both girls if felt as though a hundred years had passed in silence. Bra didn't care how long it took for an answer, she didn't want to pressure the blonde. Marron wasn't really sure of the passing time, too lost in her thoughts of what to say to the unspoken question. The question asked not with words but actions. What should her answer be? Her mouth opened a little, then closed again as she realized she still didn't have an answer.

Her mind began to settle, to calm itself and recover from the shock. And as it did it began to analyze everything. It always did. She'd look at every problem, every situation, and she'd analyze it from every side, every angle. And then once she fully understood it, then she'd make her decision. It only took a moment for everything to process, now that the shock was gone, now that her mind was clear.

"Bra... I... I don't..." she started, not really sure yet what she was going to say. Taking a deep breath she collected her thoughts and her answer. "I don't know. I mean... our age difference..."

Bra nodded. "I know, I know. You're 9 years older than I am. I'm still only 16, etc. I know this." she said. "I already thought about that. And... I don't care. I mean, I'll never age passed 20. In just under 4 years I'll stop getting older and that's it for me. So I don't see age as any kind of issue at all. I mean... what's 9 years after a hundred? After a thousand?"

Marron blinked. She'd forgotten that the Masters had Eternal Youth. There was another matter that didn't really sit right with her. "I wont." she said softly, after a moment. "I might live to a hundred. Longer if I have easy access to Regen Tanks. But that's it. No more."

"I thought of that too. And so did Pan when I talked to her before. She... suggested an answer to that problem." Bra took a breath and explained. "If we... do get together and... and we decide to stay together, to become mates, then I can have you offically stated as a Master. You'll stop aging then, too. Even if dad refuses to accept it, refuses to allow it or allow you any of the powers of the title, you'll still have the youth."

Live forever? She wasn't sure... if that appealed to her or not. "What if... I didn't want that?" she asked. As she did she realized that she was considering saying yes to that unspoken question. Realized that she did like this girl sitting on the bed with her. Realized the reason she was drawn to her so much over the passed weeks wasn't guilt about Goten but her own interest in her.

Bra froze. She'd not considered that. What if... what if Marron didn't _want_ to live forever? _"I don't... want to lose someone I care about enough to choose as a mate. But. Just the same. I don't want to miss the chance at finding my perfect mate because of that."_ She bit her lip for a moment. "I'd... understand. I wouldn't like it but I'd understand, I wouldn't press it. Having some time together is better than none." she answered.

The Hybrid's breath caught in her throat then as she felt Marron's hand move. The Human turned it over and closed it around hers, holding it. "I... I've never actually been with... anyone." she said. "At all. Ever. So... I..."

Bra smiled. "That's ok. We can take as long as you need." she said, a heavy weight seemingly lifting from her. She felt lighter than ever, like she could take the full power of the Gravity Machines and still just float into the air without even trying to. It was unlike anything she'd felt before, even with Goten. "I should... go." she said, after her heart had time to slow back down to normal. "I have things I need to take care of yet today."

Marron nodded. "Ok." she said. Bra started to move to get up but Marron stopped her gently and pulled her back down. This time it was the blonde girl that started the kiss and the Hybrid that was clearly shocked by it. Though she recovered fast and returned it. As they broke apart again Bra moved away, slowly, not really wanting to leave. But she did have duties to take care of yet, she'd not actually done any of her assigned duties yet so she had a lot to catch up on. "Oh, ummm, do you know where 18 is?" Marron asked as Bra reached the door. The girl had not yet quite gotten used to calling 18 her mother.

"She probably left." Bra said, looking back. "Before Trunks and I went for the spar my father had me give her mission orders to Leberion. Knowing her, she probably went out to check into it already." And with that she left.

Marron watched after her a moment before laying back onto the bed and sprawling out. Her mind was still spinning from what had just happened but she caught and understood the implications to her mother going on a mission. Especially to Leberion. She'd heard of the world quite a lot over the passed few years living on Teknu, the two worlds were only a day's travel apart by Space Pod. Leberion had been nothing but trouble for the Empire since it was first approached.

Which meant her mother was going there to put an end to that trouble. She shook her head to clear it of such thoughts. She didn't want to picture her mother killing. Instead she moved over to the closet and dug out a new outfit. The one she was in now had definitely smelled better. She'd grab a shower first, then head off to visit Mistress Bulma for a while.


	20. A Saijin's Limits

A/N: To anyone disappointed with the lack of Buu battle in the last chapter, rejoice! It's the bulk of this one.

_Chapter Twenty - A Sai-jin's Limits_

Trunks had walked a little slower than usual as he passed through the palace halls. He was in no rush to reach his father's room and have the coming conversation. While he knew putting off the matter would be an utterly bad idea, that didn't mean he had to rush over as fast as he could move. Besides, it gave him time to think. And thinking was something he really needed to do right now.

He'd told Bra he wouldn't mention this to their father just to ease her mind a little. But she would likely find out eventually, and if it was by the reasons she'd feared when asking him not to mention it... He'd witnessed what his sister was like when she was upset. He could deal with his father's yelling or the poundings he took from the spars that sometimes resulted. But Bra didn't do either of those. She pulled herself into her own little world and would ignore the outside world, especially the person who had upset her.

The Prince had a feeling that, if this had the result his sister feared, she wouldn't talk to him for years. Decades, at the least. Possibly even centuries. Beyond that, he was worried she might cut herself off from everyone altogether. _"Well, if she tries to do that I just wont let her."_ he thought. As he came to a stop he blinked and sighed realizing he'd reached his destination. Reaching a hand out he knocked.

"Who is it?" Vegeta called from inside.

"It's me father. I need to speak with you, it's important."

A moment later there was a click and the door opened as the Sai-jin royal let his son in. "What's this about?" he asked as he cast a quick glance back over at the computer screen. Gohan's energy had just taken a sudden nosedive before his son had arrived. Now it read as an error message. Obviously he'd taken to battle as well, though the earlier drop bothered him. His condition could be dangerous in this battle, for both him and his father.

"It's... about 18's daughter. Marron." Trunks said. "You said to report anything odd to you at once so..."

Vegeta's attention returned to his son. There was nothing the scouter systems could tell him now about what was happening out there. And the battle was so far away that the powers would be muddled and jumbled together as they fought. No, he was now, effectively, in the dark as to the events on Kurokokan. All he could do about that was wait. This matter with Marron, however, he might be able to do something with. "What's happened?"

"Bra and I were sparring just a bit ago, Marron was in watching." Trunks began. "A stray energy blast shot straight for her and then..." he shook his head. "Her power shot up through the roof, easily matching Gohan's. I don't think she even knows it, it was like she thought Bra saved her."

"Matching Gohan's?" Vegeta asked in disbelief. "His base power?"

"Ya, only his base..."

"Still... That much power from her." Vegeta said thoughtfully, turning from his son and walking across the room slowly. "She's never trained, she's not a fighter. To have a power of such a level without having trained at all... it's utterly absurd, even for a Sai-jin, but she's just a Human. If she learned of this power, learned how to control it... Or if she had any children..."

Trunks opened his mouth to mention Bra's intrest in her, that it might not come to pass that the blonde would be presented with the chance to have children. But he stopped before the words had even begun to form. Bra's interest in Marron was about the only thing that would be able to save the girl now, he figured. And for his sister's sake he wanted that to happen. But they would have to be an item already for that to work. Informing his father of this intrest now would only speed up his reaction time. A least if he held back on that piece of information he might buy Marron a little extra time.

Vegeta turned and looked at his son again. "I'll think about this later, once I know there's still an empire that needs protecting..."

"They're fighting, aren't they?" Trunks asked, looking at the three error readings on the monitor. "I thought I felt them, just on the edge of my senses, during the spar with Bra."

Vegeta nodded. "They are. If Kakkarotto and Gohan lose... well, it wont matter what kind of power the girl has anymore."

_ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ_

Kakkarotto let out a loud cry as he threw a hard kick for Buu's head. His leg impacted with a crack denting it in. Gohan, meanwhile, came up from behind jamming his knee into the pink creature's back. The two blows deformed it quite a bit but it only took a moment for it to recover completely. His left arm shot back, his elbow smashing into Gohan's face and knocking him flying away. 

He then kicked out his lef leg slamming his foot into Kakkarotto's stomach. Then he did the same with the other leg. Grinning and laughing the creature crossed it's arms and started kicking out it's feet, alternating between one and then other, landing nearly a dozen powerful kicks. Suddenly the blows stopped as the Sai-jin grabbed the incoming leg. Spinning around quickly he pitched him down toward the planet and then fired a blast of golden energy after him.

The Ki blast slammed into the ground, swelled, and then exploded savagely looking like a second sun for a moment. The ground beneath them began to groan as cracks snaked through the dirt and rock. The force of the explosion had distabilized the entire area. Gohan didn't doubt that the two underground bouts hadn't made it any harder. As the Hybrid came up next to his father the entire area below them collapsed. A large canyon forming for about five miles in every direction, dust shooting up into the air.

A pink glow formed within the dust and then suddenly a ball of energy shot out of it straight for the Sai-jins. They moved aside quickly and it zipped passed them. As soon as they turned to look again they found Buu only feet away. There was a loud smack a second later as his fist smashed into Kakkarotto's jaw knocking him away before he could react. Another crack came as he kicked Gohan in the back of the head.

He then thrust his short arms out toward the two of them and smirked. He floated up into the air quickly keeping his arms pointed at the Sai-jins. Stopping his ascent as they righted themselves and prepared to charge him he started laughing. Pink energy formed at the end of his arms and then he started spinning with it. The two warriors watched him in confusion and curiosity. A moment later he was nothing but a blur as he spun like a helicopter blade. And then suddenly a rain of Ki came rushing down from him shooting out over the area wildly.

The randomness of it made it next to impossible to gauge where the next one would be. Gohan only managed to slip one before three smacked into his head and two into his back knocking him toward the ground. Kakkarotto faired better at first, managing to dodge four, but then was pounded as he took eight to the head, four to the chest, two to each leg, one to his right arm, and then six to the back driving him into the ground.

Gohan picked himself up out of the ground and sensed it insantly. "Shit." he muttered, looking up toward Buu. His father was down, probably knocked out by the blows to the head he just took. "Looks like I go solo until he's up again. Not good." His aura flared up around him and in a burst of speed he shot toward the blob. Reaching it he started swinging hard and fast. He pushed as much power behind each attack as he could muster, moved each one as fast as he could.

But the short pink creature before him weaved and dodged without any effort. He didn't even bother to actually change his position in the air, just twisted and bent his body around the incoming blows. "Hold still!" Gohan yelled thrusting both arms forward, the base of his palms touching, and blasting a stream of golden energy at Buu. As the energy vanished there was no sign of the pink creature but the Hybrid could still sense him. 

The pink goo that made up Buu's body began to swirl in the air and soon coalesced into the creature once more. It blinked a couple of times and then looked around a bit confused before realizing it had reformed upside down. It's body rippled and a moment later it had morphed so that it was rightside up. Buu just tilted his head back and forth as though trying to crack his neck.

Gohan floated panting and not really sure how to handle this creature. He'd never fought something with such advanced regenerative powers. Piccolo and Cell could recover from extensive damage but that used up energy and had limits. This thing could seemingly recover from anything. He wasn't even sure if atomizing the thing, assuming he could generate that much power, would be enough to stop it.

_"Well, I do have a few tricks up my sleeve."_ he thought with a grin. Hunching over in the air he clenched his hands into fists and began to focus his waning power. He'd already lost a small chunk of it, about ten percent, and at these levels that was a lot. With a cry his aura flared up savagely and power rushed from his body. The backwash of energy kicked up dust and rocks on the planet below and blasted the clouds above apart and away.

The Hybrid smirked as he felt it. The wamth building deep in the pit of his stomach. Focusing he continued to draw on his power, to channel every drop of energy he had through his body. His aura thickened and grew brighter, more intense. The flashes of blue about him lasted longer and were bigger and brighter. And then he felt the rush of energy wash up through his body and his power jumped back up to his maximum and beyond.

His muscled expanded slighly under the strain of the power as he relaxed and stopped the power-up. He'd always possessed unusual reserves of energy, ever since he'd been a little child. It had only been in recent years that he'd learned to tap into those reserves on his own, instead of through instinct. "Alright, time to see how you handle this!" Gohan called, raising his arms above his head and crossing them, one palm over the back of the other hand.

His aura pulsed, flashed, flared, and then sank into a sphere in front of his hands. He pushed as much of the energy he could into the forming attack, the golden ball of Ki flashing and flaring as it grew larger and larger. Buu merely raised a single eye ridge but didn't seem all that concerned. With a cry Gohan thrust his arms down and forward. "Masenko Ha!" The golden energy sphere exploded into a massive wave of orange energy that surged toward Buu at incredible speeds.

The beam cut down into the planet below gouging out a massive trench along it's length. The Hybrid felt the impact a second later as the attack hit its mark. But even after the resistance faded and Buu's body was vaporized once more the Hybrid simply continued his attack. The Masenko narrowed, the beam growing more intense and focused. And then it suddenly vanished in an instant, a loud agonzied scream accompanying it's depature.

The Hybrid's hair turned black as he fell from the sky, his right arm rippling and pulsing like some sort of giant worm was inside attempting to escape. He hit the ground a moment later with a dull thud. The rippling reached through his entire body now, every muscle spasming and contracting randomly. And then it was gone, just as quickly as it had come. It took the pain a moment longer to fade and as he slowly opened his eyes again brilliant pink and gold lights flared up into his vision.

Kakkarotto stood and rubbed his head. He'd come to again just in time to see his son's Masenko make its impact. As the scream sounded a second later the powerful Sai-jin turned his eyes from Buu's former location to where his son floated. "Shit." he muttered, bracing his body as he watched Gohan fall. He was still gathering his power when he saw a pink light flare up a short distance from where Buu had been previously. Turning to look again he saw the creature reformed and charging a large pink energy bomb over his head. 

"I don't think so freak." he growled, shooting off toward his son in a flash of gold. He'd not gathered enough power to reach level three as he transformed. Buu saw him moving rapidly, just above the surface of the planet, and let out a cackle as he pitched the energy down toward them. Kakkarotto glanced up at it and then put on more speed pushing himself as hard as he could go. He reached the location of his son only a moment before the attack did.

Thrusting his arms up he caught the energy in his palms and instantly felt it pushing him back down into the planet with incredible force. "You've got to be fucking kidding me!" he cried as the ground around him cracked and exploded, debris lifting into the air as his feet were pushed down into the planet. He could feel it clear as day as he pushed against the attack above him to no avail. The creature had put over half of it's power into the attack and he could still feel the thing at full strength above him.

"I am..." Kakkarotto growled, his feet shifting and his aura growing brighter. "Starting to... get annoyed!" he roared, his aura flashing and then flaring up as he transformed to the third level. With a cry his hands flashed blue and a wave of blue energy slammed into the energy ball forcing it back the way it had come. Buu merely dodged to the side easily avoiding the attacks. Turning and looking back down it found Kakkarotto still standing where he'd been, arms held up, and panting heavily. Buu grinned, pointed one finger down at him and put his other hand over his stomach, and started laughing insanely.

"I'm going to enjoy wiping that ugly grin off your face." Kakkarotto growled, lowering his arms. Buu stopped in his laughing and blinked, and then cracked up laughing even harder. The amused look that had been on the Sai-jin's face for most of the fight was gone now, replaced by one of determination and annoyance. Buu was getting under his skin, drawing out his Sai-jin nature more and more. To Gohan, that was a good thing. His father was an expert fighter but was only at his peak when his Sai-jin instincts where out in-force.

Standing up, he walked up beside his father and transformed again. Kakkarotto glanced over to him and shook his head. "Stay back. You already had a flare up, it's too dangerous for you to stay in this fight."

"I'm not backing down. I'm not going to lose to some wad of bubblegum." Gohan replied brushing some dirt off of his armor. "Don't worry about me, keep your focus on Buu. If something happens... it happens. I'd rather die fighting this freak than stand by doing nothing."

Kakkarotto remained silent for a moment and then nodded. "Alright. I can understand that." he said, turning his gaze back to Buu who was still laughing his ass off. "Damn it. This thing is really starting to piss me off."

"Let's show it what a pair of Sai-jins can really do." Gohan said with a smirk as he changed stances. He spread his legs apart, bent over slightly, pulled his arms back to his sides, and clenched his hands into fists. Kakkarotto smirked and soon followed suit. Their golden aura pulsed and flared up growing larger and brighter until a moment later they'd met. Blue lightning flashed around their auras as their powers charged and they gathered the energy for the coming attack.

The blue lightning around their auras intensified and started flaring up around their fists as well. In the sky above them Buu stopped his laughing and was gazing down at them, head tilted to one side. There was a flash of gold from the two Sai-jins a second later and their auras turned into a bubble of energy around them. "See you in hell!" Kakkarotto yelled thrusting his arms up. Gohan did the same and a second later their voices rang out in unison. "Twin Dragons!" 

Blue light flared from their palms and shot skyward. The twin beams of energy surged toward Buu as they spiraled and twisted wrapping around each other and then merging. As the two became one, the ball of energy at it's forefront morphed and transformed into a Dragon's head, it's mouth gaping wide in a silent roar. Buu's eyes widened slightly in shock, disbelief, and fear, as the two became one and the attack neared him.

"Gyryaaaaaaaaaaaa!" the creature cried, thrusting his arms out toward the rapidly approaching attack. Pink light flared on it's palms and then shot toward the Dragon's head quickly. The two impacted only yards from where Buu floated, the head exploding. The pink creature's eyes widened further as it realized its counter attack wasn't stopping the incoming energy, it was getting pushed back.

"NOW!" Kakkarotto roared from below, barely audible over the thunderous sounds of the dueling energies. "Full Power!" Both Sai-jins released loud roars, their powers soaring as they dug deep into the hidden reserves of power they held. Neither had much reserve power left but they drew out what they could find. The twin energy streams coming from them merged down their length right down to their points of origin.

The now single beam grew brighter and thicker swelling as new power was forced along it's length. Buu's cries of shock and anger flared up even louder above them as their attack increased in speed pushing back against the creature's own counter. Suddenly steam began to surge free of the small being's body from the openings on its head and arms. It's pink aura flared up swelling out to massive size, nearly reaching the point of the dueling beams. The creature's body rippled and pulsated as it forced the entirety of its power out of its body and into its attack.

The pink beam flared and swelled, matching size with the other. And then it began to push it back down again, repelling the Sai-jins assault, though with some difficulty. "Keep going!" Kakkarotto called. "It's straining against us, if we can find some more power..."

"I don't have anymore!" Gohan cried, trying in vain to do as his father had suggested. But he was tapped. Completely and fully tapped. He could already feel what power he did still have starting to slip away from him. "I'm losing it, my power is maxed out! I'm already starting to drain my standard energy stores!" 

"Damn it!" Kakkarotto roared, pushing down deeper into his body, trying to find _something_ to fight with. As he did he felt his own reserves depleting rapidly. If this kept up he'd soon be draining his own standard energy stores and then it would be all over. If he ran out of reserves completely, if he started using his standard energy to maintain this attack with... he'd be unable to retain his Super Sai-jin 3 state. His energy wouldn't be stable enough, and he'd quickly deplete the power needed to sustain the form anyway.

As his mind raced through this fact it also noted that Gohan's statement was proving accurate. His son's power was declining now at a high rate of speed. As things stood he'd only last another minute, max, before he ran out of energy to sustain his level two form, and then they'd have far too little power to even slow the nearing attack. Both of them were at their limits, both of them were as far as they could go, and then some. And neither one could match the creature in the sky above them.

Kakkarotto's scowl turned into an angry glare as the sound's of Buu's laughter reached his ears again. "Don't mock me you freak!" he roared, suddenly finding more power he'd not even realized he had. It wasn't enough to make a difference in the attack but it slowed his own drop in power. His angry cry only seemed to amuse Buu even more as the laughing intensified.

And then it happened. The event that the powerful Sai-jin knew would be the turning point in this power struggle. The event he knew would mark the end of the battle as things stood. The event that would spell the death of him. The event that would bring the end to his son. An event that could easily lead to the destruction of the entire Empire and the death of every living being in the universe.

For such a grand event it was marked with only the simplest of signs, a light flash of light from Gohan, a flash that came from the failing of his power. A flash of light that spelt the end to Gohan's Super Sai-jin 2 status, an end to the other's greatest level of power, and a grand weakening to the attack the two were producing. Feeling this great failing in power and the sudden increase in speed from Buu's attack Kakkarotto growled, an angry and primal sound from deep within.

His Sai-jin blood boiled. This creature had been toying with him the entire time they'd been fighting. He'd been playing around, not even trying, and he'd walked all over him. This freak of nature was stronger than him, the most powerful Sai-jin to ever live, and it was treating him like a joke. Few things riled the powerful Sai-jin. Few things earned his anger and wrath. Betrayal was one, as he firmly believed in loyalty. The other was when his power was mocked.

Gohan's eyes narrowed as he fell down to level one. He couldn't hold the attack much longer but he knew there would be no time to escape once it gave out. And now that his power had nosedived Buu's own attack was nearing them at a much faster pace. He tried franticly to find some sort of reserves, some sort of hidden power he'd not used yet. He even tried doing as his father had suggested several times in the past and tried to locate the means with which to reach the third level. But it was all for naught, there was nothing there. 

And then he felt it slipping, his grasp on his Super Sai-jin power. In a matter of seconds it would fail, his power would reduce to nearly nothing compared to the grand scale on display here. And then it would end. Without his power to help, his father's own waning energy would be all that remained to hold off the attack and that, at this point, would not be enough. Buu's attack would cut through their's like a hot knife through butter.

"At least..." Gohan said, giving in to the inevitable defeat. "I'll be dying a Sai-jin."

"I am _not_ being killed by a wad of insane pink goo!" Kakkarotto yelled. That's when his son felt it. A burning power emanating from his father unlike any he'd felt before. It wasn't a new strength or new level of power, it was more like a state of being. He could feel no power within this energy but yet could feel an intense power beyond anything he'd ever felt. He could feel anger, hatred, despair, pride, and a million other things washing out through his father's energy.

Before he could process this in his mind, however, he was distracted by the failing of his first form. His power sapped and depleted he could no longer maintain the transformation and returned to his base form, severely weakened. Instantly he saw the pink energy wave begin tearing its way through what remained of the attack the Sai-jins had launched. It was all over... they'd finally met an opponent that they couldn't defeat.

And then a loud roar sounded from his father, the churning power he'd felt from his father taking form, shifting into true power, strength. His father's aura exploded, his power rushing up through the roof as golden light engulfed him. The explosion of energy blew Gohan off his feet knocking him back at least two hundred yards before he was able to stop. His father now looked like a sun that had fallen to the planet. The blue attack had faded away and Buu's own pink energy had slammed head on into the golden glowing Sai-jin.

And then the glare faded, the aura swirled and receded into a more natural one. Blue lightning crackled about his body fiercely and madly as Kakkarotto stood, unharmed by the attack that only moments before would have destroyed him. His long golden mane of hair no longer stopped at his waist, it flowed down further, just passed his knees. His eyebrow ridges had extended out a bit further, the blue color of his pupils had darkened, and a thin ring of gold now outlined his teal irises as well.

Gohan swallowed as he stared at his father, the other Sai-jin's gaze hard and focused, his eyes locked on Buu. He could feel his father's energy brimming and full, his body restored from the wear and tear it had taken in the battle. The side-effect of attaining a new level of Super Sai-jin, a complete healing and recovery of the body. His father was back to his full power, and well beyond the level of what that power had once been.

Standing before him was a Level 4 Super Sai-jin, it's power astounding and mind boggling. He knew his father had insisted it existed but he'd never been convinced, until now. Gohan turned his attention skyward, toward Buu once more, and compared the two powers before him. Both were absurd, mind numbing, and bubbling with anticipation. But his father's was the superior, he could feel it.

"Alright you pink freak!" Kakkarotto called up, his deep voice a shock to his son. "Now the battle gets interesting. Let's see if you can stand up against me now!" 

Buu's expression of shock had returned as he stared down at the being before him. Suddenly he let out a thunderous yell throwing back his head and arms, steam pouring from his body as it rippled and pulsed. And then it's body began to shift slightly. It's arms grew thicker, as though powerful muscles were forming inside them. It's chest expanded some as well, muscles forming there too. A moment later it had grown about two inches taller and it was about twice as bulky as before. And it's power had climbed a fair amount too.

In fact, it now felt even, or really close to it, with his father. But he could also feel the strain of the power washing from the creature. Apparently the two Sai-jins weren't the only ones with excess power beyond what their bodies could easily manage and contain. _"At least that means he's got limits too."_ Gohan thought as a crack sounded, his father launching up into the battle once again.

Buu waited for the charging Sai-jin where he was. As soon as the powerful warrior reached him the creture brought it's arms up to block the incoming punch and then the two were locked into combat. It was evident to the experienced fighter that Buu was, finally, taking the fight seriously. The creature was actually putting effort into its defenses, attempting to dodge or block as many incoming blows as possible.

Kakkarotto, however, wasn't. He was no longer interested in a challenging or a hard fought battle. Merely in destroying the creature floating before him. He slipped the blows that he could as he looked for solid openings, but did little to block attacks coming for him. The powerful Sai-jin deflected a kick and then pounded his knee into Buu's gut. The thunderous crack had barely subsided before the Sai-jin's elbow smashed into the side of Buu's head.

Then the powerful warrior reached out his hand, before the pink creature had even begun to restore its face to a normal condition, and grabbed the small antenna atop its head. His other arm lanced out at the same time and smashed into his face, his chest, his face, his stomach, his chest, and so on and so on in a relentless assault. All the while the creature was held in place by the firm hand gripping tightly to its appendage.

He launched another punch for its face and this time his fist and arm, up to his elbow, went clean through. The pink creature rippled and began to turn into goo and flow along his arm. It spread out covering his body, working its way over his arm, across his chest, down his body, and up over his face. In only a matter of seconds the Sai-jin's entire body was hidden within the covering of pink goo.

And then a loud scream sounded from within and gold light began to punch through the coating. Gohan shielded his eyes as a blinding flash filled the sky and Buu was blasted apart and off his father's body by the energy burst. Opening his eyes and looking up again he saw blobs of pink falling to the planet like some kind of freaky snow. Kakkarotto lowered his arms and relaxed a little, taking the lull in the battle as an opportunity to adjust to his new form and re-collect some of the energy he'd lost since the transformation.

Gohan looked around him and watched as the blobs began to shimmer and roll along the ground toward each other. It took a few moments but soon a pile had formed. As more blobs merged with it, it rippled and took shape. A moment later Buu was reformed and gazing up at his opponent again. His face was set in a determined and angry scowl. With a cry he surged up at Kakkarotto again, pink energy trailing behind him. Reaching the Sai-jin he didn't slow and merely slammed, head first, into his stomach. 

The blow knocked the Sai-jin higher into the sky and caused Buu to bounce back down toward the planet. On his way down he curled into a ball and his clothes rippled away. By the time he hit the ground he'd turned into a solid ball of pink... whatever he was. Hitting the planet's surface he bounced skyward again straight toward Kakkarotto. The powerful Sai-jin saw him coming and dodged to the side letting him zip passed.

Buu stopped dead a few feet away and then reversed direction, slamming into his face and driving him all the way down into the ground. There was a loud crash as they slammed into the surface, dust and debris shooting high into the air from the impact and the ground shook, even where Gohan stood more than a hundred yards away. The half Sai-jin cursed not being able to see what was going on now that they'd smashed out a crater and drifted up into the air a little to try and get a better angle.

The ball of Buu had taken up residence on Kakkarotto's face, covering it completely. It was begining to snake down along the rest of his body in an attempt to cover him enitrely once more. _"What is it doing?"_ Gohan wondered. The first time he saw it he merely thought it some sort of counter to his father's attacks. Now, however, it appeared to be an independant tactic with some sort of goal involved.

Whatever that goal was, Gohan wasn't going to see it this time either. Twin beams of blue energy surged up through the ball tearing holes in it and lifting it into the air. The downed Sai-jin's eyes flashed and two more beams shot up driving the creature away further. With that taken care of, he climbed back to his feet scowling. "Ugh, disgusting." he muttered brushing himself off. "It felt like he was trying to _eat_ me."

In the sky the blob had only partially reformed, a head emerging from the deformed mass. Its eyes were locked on its opponent, its brows furrowed in a deep scowl. Apparently it was rather annoyed at the continued resistance to... whatever it was attempting to do. Then, suddenly, its eyes widened as though something dawned on it. Something that it felt should have been so obvious that it felt stupid for not thinking of it sooner.

Its red irises moved within the black pools of its eyes, its gaze shifting from one warrior to the other. As it locked its focus on Gohan a smirk grew on its face. Suddenly the deformed mass swelled out massively like a giant net and surged through the air. Before the half Sai-jin even had time to register its approach Buu was on him and had him completely enveloped in its body. Kakkarotto turned to look as the thing writhed and shifted around his son. "What the hell is it up to!?"

_ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ_

Gohan was at a loss for where he was. One moment he's standing on Kurokokan watching his father fighting Buu. The next he's... not. The world around him was pitch black but he could see himself just fine. His armor, his hands, his boots. It was as though a spotlight was on him and yet there was no light to speak of. "What... is going on?" he asked no one in particular. After all, he wasn't expecting a reply. So it was quite the shock one a voice responded. 

"Inside head!" it said, rather cheerily. He turned to look behind him, at where the voice had come from, and saw a large fat version of the creature he and his father had been fighting. It took a moment for him to realize it was the original incarnation of Buu, the good version that had stopped the evil half originally.

"How... what...?"

"Bad Buu trying to absorb you." the round blob said. "Trying to make you part of it, take your power."

That's when he remembered the wall of pink that had appeared before him just before this darkness. "That's what it was trying to do to my father, wasn't it?"

The round Buu nodded. "Make stronger so no die." he said. He tilted his head to the side slightly for a moment as though curious and then looked up. "Ooooh, he comes! He comes!"

"What?" Gohan looked up and saw a pink light forming in the blackness above him. It was spreading out and engulfing everything as it grew.

"Me no like him. Me help you fight!"

"Fight? Here? How?"

"Bad Buu must knock out conciousness, you conciousness. We fight Bad Buu's conciousness. If we beat him then he go bye-bye. If we no beat him..."

"Then I go 'bye-bye'?"

The round Buu nodded. "But Buu no scared. Buu no worried. You have _two_ conciousness!" Gohan was confused at this but, before he could ask anything further, the pink light reached them and the world around them went from black to pink in an instant. And then the small Buu him and his father had been fighting appeared before them both. "Full power!" Buu cried. "All power here in mind!"

Gohan realized what he meant almost instantly. He didn't feel any fatigue or strain on his body here. Which meant... There was a bright flash of gold as he ascended to the second level. He wasn't sure how strong the other Buu was, but if he could summon every drop of his energy, he might be able to repel this 'bad Buu' from his mind. And any help in that regard was appreciated.


	21. The One Within

A/N: My beta-reader has fallen seriously behind. As such this chapter hasn't been proofread by anyone but me so expect typos.

_Chapter Twenty-one - The One Within_

Gero sighed as he stared at the monitor before him. All the data from Gohan's last round of tests was displayed on this screen and three others around him. He was looking for something, anything, that could tell him what was occuring within the boy's body. He could see the shifting genetic information well enough. Gohan's DNA had, indeed, changed noticeably since his first round of tests. However, none of the changes really seemed to do much of anything. They all seemed fairly general and basic, nothing overly specific, but...

"Hmmm, now... what do we have here..." Gero wondered, bringing up a section of the DNA the computer had highlighted. Reading the line over his computer enhanced brain compiled the genetic code and created a model of it in his head. In a matter of moments he was looking at exactly what the piece of information would allow and comparing it with the existing data. "Oh, now that is interesting indeed." he said, leaning back in his chair.

Standing up he moved out of the room he was in and down one of the halls. He passed up a couple of doors before reaching the area he was going to. The door swished open as he approached and he entered the lab. There were a few members of his staff milling about doing things at various terminals but he ignored them and moved further into the lab. Passing by some terminals he pressed a few buttons on them and a door marked 'Restricted - No Entry' slid open to allow him through.

Stepping into the room he gazed at the woman incased in glass before him. The green fluid sloshed and bubbled around her as the automated systems ejected the day old solution and filled the tank with fresh fluids. Her blue skin glistened brightly as the tank emptied completely, the remains of the green solution running down over her nude form. Without the green fluids in the way to distort the colors of her body her blue skin and the red stripes stood out vibrantly. As did her purple hair which lay matted to her head and body.

Even with the wires and tubes running from her body she was certainly a beautiful sight. No one could deny that. "To think... this entire process started simply because I wanted to save you from the death that was coming." Gero said softly as the tank refiled. "We've gone well beyond curing you of that problem though, haven't we? Yes... you are my ultimate creation, the full power of Humanity pulled to the surface. With luck, that means your power will be comparable to that of Cell's." he shook his head then to snap out of his musings. He had come here for a purpose.

Moving over to one of the terminals he typed rappidly and pulled up the data he wanted. There it stood, the DNA strand compound he'd created to allow for genetic modification. The basic design had changed little over the years, though there was some varriation between the current model and the original. Still, in the end, it was basicly the same thing. And what he was looking at now was basicly what he'd found within Gohan as well. "So, my thoughts are confirmed, then." he mused, pursing his lips.

"It would seem something has been altering the base level of Master Gohan's DNA in order to enable and allow a sudden mutation of some type." He punched in a few commands and the genetic information for Gohan came up and mapped out in comparison with that of his own works. He decided to single out those most similar to Gohan in original genetic information, which meant Tenshi, Mitsuki, Cell, and a couple of early failed tests. Going over what he saw brought him to a few conclusions but also gave him new questions.

The form and construct was vastly differnent between what was occuring within Gohan and what he'd done for his subjects. His designs allowed for quick and fluid mutations via the induction of new material. It would combine the added information with the existing information. This construct within Gohan wasn't quite as subtle, as smooth, or as well formed. It would allow for quick bursts of alterations to direct genetic squences but with forceful backwash and extensive rejection upon initiation.

"That would explain his attacks." Gero said, reading over the data. "Each attack is a shifting of his genetic information." He pushed a few more buttons and shifted the screen to some other data. "Yes, I see." he said after a moment. "These two strands here, they were the beginning of the process. But how would they have been inserted originally?" Quickly he moved through his data files on Gohan's genetic information. He had everything going back to when the Master had only been five. And in each file the strands were present.

"Hmm, so, before my records then. Or, perhaps, from the beginning? Is it possible? Could the information have been inserted into Master Kakkarotto somehow with the intent of being passed on to his offspring?" Gero blinked. This called for further examination. Master Goten had never displayed this issue like Gohan had done. Nor had Mistress Pan. But he didn't have any current genetic information on them, their files were more than a year old now.

Kakkarotto would be fun to get a sample from. Him and his asinine fear of needles would require several hours of work to get a blood sample. He'd need to exhume Master Goten's remains from the burial grounds... Mistress Chi-Chi wouldn't like that too much. He didn't think Kakkarotto or Gohan would like it much either, but it had to be done. And he'd need to get a sample from Pan as well, but with her so far away now... "I'll have to have someone there do the extraction and send me the information afterwards."

"Dr. Gero?" a female voice asked a bit suprised. Gero turned from the read-out to look behind him and saw Videl entering the lab area, a large box of papers in her arms. She sat the box down on one of the console tables and took a couple of steps his way. "I didn't expect to see you here now."

"I decided to get some work done." he said. "I see no reason to stop and wait for the outcome of the battle. If they win then things go on as they have. If they don't then they don't."

Videl nodded. "I'm just here to keep my mind busy. I was going to transfer these old documents over to digital format but that's boring as hell. If you've got anything you need help with..."

Gero rubbed his chin in thought for a moment. "Actually, there is something you could do for me. Though I doubt it'll be as much fun as the paper work. I need someone to tell Mistress Chi-Chi that I need to get a DNA sample from Master Goten."

Videl was silent for a long moment. Gero was right, the paper work was suddenly looking very entertaining. As she opened her mouth to speak a series of beeps sounded and their attentions shifted to the monitor they'd come from. Gohan's power level was now being displayed. That wasn't a good sign to either one of them. It meant that not only had he dropped down to the first level but he'd lost a good ammount of power.

And then the number, which had been declining steadily, plunged even lower. Gohan had just fallen to his base level. The two were so focused on the numbers and their implications that neither one noticed the activity within the tank. Tenshi stirred and shifted slightly. Her eyes opened a tiny ammount for a second and then closed again. And then all was still within the tank once more, no signs of her momentary activity remained.

Suddenly the machines began beeping again, wildly, as they detected the sudden shift occuring deep in space. The flashing ERROR reading for Kakkarotto's energy signal vanished and was replaced with a flashing question mark. "What the hell?" Videl wondered. "How could it lose track of Master Kakkarotto?"

Gero moved over to the machine and checked the readings on one of the display screens. "It didn't. It's confused by the input. Master Kakkarotto's wave form pattern has shifted apparently... That means..."

"Another transformation..."

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Cold and Inferna's ships were still several hours away from the edge of the Eye of Universe, the center of the universe. It wasn't exactly an eventful place, just the empty void of space, but it was a marker on their journy. The half way point, so to speak, on the trip. The journey was progressing at a much faster pace than Cold had anticipated. But the Valkano, Inferna's people, were highly adept at understanding the most complex of sciences. They had managed to devise a means of generating what was normally a naturally occuring phenomenon in space. Wormholes.

It wasn't possible to just open up one of these wormholes anywhere they chose to. Something to do with the density of space or something. As well as gravitational forces. But they had managed to generate one so far that had allowed them to cross the entire expanse of the North Galaxy in only an hour's time, instead of a month. Cold hoped they'd be able to create one or two to cross the Eye as well. He wasn't looking forward to spending five months in the middle of litterally nothing.

Currently, however, his interests weren't directed toward anything work related. He was, as he had been doing often over the last three weeks, having dinner with Inferna. It had been shortly after their meal had started that they had felt the battle beginning between Master Kakkarotto and the Buu creature. The woman had still been trying to grasp the ammount of power posessed by Kakkarotto and his son when the elder Sai-jin's power had shot through the roof to an even greater level.

"My word..." Cold said, setting down his fork as he focused. "That is most impressive indeed. So then, the fourth level of Super Sai-jin truly does exist. I'd thought Master Kakkarotto was mistaken but apparently not. The pattern is broken though, I see."

"Pattern?" Inferna asked.

Cold nodded. "The first form of Super Sai-jin is fifty times more powerful than their base form. The second and third forms are as powerful as their first. The second form is twice the power of the first and the third is three times the power of the first."

Inferna nodded. "I see what you mean. The the second and third merely add on the ammount of power generated by the first form to their current power. So the third form is 150 times the power of their base. This strength I'm feeling is certainly stronger than 200 times his base though."

"Indeed. More like two hundred and twenty or so, if I'm not mistaken. Which makes the power yeild greater than the previous two forms."

"I don't... believe it." Inferna said slowly as she felt Buu's power climb up rappidly and match that of the other Master."

"Well, nothing we can do from here." Cold said at last. He turned his focus back to the food on his plate. "May as well just enjoy dinner. Now that their powers are that close it is impossible for Master Kakkarotto to lose. He never has, you know. So, as I was saying before we got distracted, I have noticed some striking similarites between our peoples. Our cultures are more alike with each other's than with any of the other races in the North galaxy. Not to mention our old languages and physical similarities."

Inferna nodded deciding that not focusing on the battle would be a good idea for now. "Yes, I've noticed that as well. In fact, based on the genetic records I've seen, you have the most similar genetic structure to me as any race we've ever encountered. I do find that a little odd, since we're seperated by the expanse of the entire univerese."

"Now, perhaps. But maybe it hasn't always been so."

Inferna took a bite of her food and gazed at Cold as she chewed, thinking. A moment later she swallowed and spoke again. "How so?"

"I was looking into your histories earlier and found that they don't go back more than ten thousand years. Something about a cataclysm wiping out all previous records?"

She nodded. "A planetary core disruption generated a massive electro-magnetic pulse that fried every computer on the planet and in orbit. The natural disasters that came along with the disruption, quakes, super storms, etc, disrupted life on the planet for nearly a decade. The whole thing set back our technological advancement more than eight hundred years. We lost a lot of our knowledge and had to pretty much re-learn it all again. Hell, we were living in straw huts until just about six hundred years ago."

"Right." Cold said. "And I also read that your people have been searching for their heritage, their history. And while you've found some things dating back as far as twelve thousand years ago you've not found anything else. And your own genetic files of the life forms on your world show that your people are vastly different than them. I noticed that several of your minds believe that you came from a different world originally."

"There are those who think that." Inferna said after a moment. "I don't personally see it as plausible though. Our ancestors were advanced prior to the cataclysm, sure, but we're more advanced now than they were then. We didn't find any remanents of space travel technology anywhere on the planet."

"What if... that's because they gave it up?" Cold asked. "Your records say that a lot of the drive your people have for technological advancement stems from the cataclysm. You wanted to make up for lost time, reclaim your lost technologies, and then become even better. It is possible that, prior to that event, your people had the opposite mind set. Perhaps deciding they wished to remain where they were, isolate themselves from the other races..."

Inferna furrowed her brow. "That is possible I suppose, but it sounds to me like a lot of what-ifs and grabbing at straws. Why put so much thought into this, anyway?"

"A long time ago we Changelings didn't live on the world we do now." Cold explained. "We lived... elsewhere. Records don't say where, exactly. They merely call it The World of Origin. The only records we have of that world, and the reason we left it, is a single computer log that we managed to salvage from an old ship we found burried a few hundred feet below ground, thanks to the effects of time. The log says that our world was dying, centuries of high-speed technological advancement without any thougths toward the effects on the ecosystem had ruined the air, destroyed the ozone, poluted the water, and killed most of the plant and animal life.

"It says that a meeting of the races was held, that three different Changeling races inhabited our old world. The meeting was to decide what to do. Saving the world wasn't possible and each of the three races had a different view on what we should do. One race, my race, decided to leave the World of Origin for another planet where we would continue on as we had been. But with more consideration to the effects new technologies would have on the planet. In fact, they planned to scrap a lot of the existing technology completely because of its poluting nature and start over.

"The second race thought that wasn't enough. Moving to a new world was the only course of option for survival, they agreed on that. But they believed that all technology should be dropped. That they should return to a simplier life when things weren't so hectic and simple convieninces wouldn't cause millions of deaths. They decided to go to a different world than us and to throw away all of their technology leaving only the barest of things. The only computers they wanted to keep where for record keeping.

"The third race refused to leave the World of Origin. They said that it was the world that they were born on and so it would be the world that they would die on. They had brought about the death of the planet and so it was only fair that they stay behind and reap what they had sown. No doubt they died mere months after my ancestors had left the planet. The point is, our genetic similarities, the lack of records of your presence on your world more than twelve thousand years ago, the technologies you have found burried since the cataclysm, its just too much to be a coincidence I think.

"Even those ancient computers you've uncovered show striking similarity to the ancient Changeling technology. Minor differences in design styles and implimentation of features are about all that seperates them. The similar languages and cultures only further enforce my thoughts. You can't find anything of yours more than twelve thousand years old because twelve thousand years ago you lived on a different world."

"It... is possible... I suppose." Inferna said. "But it could be mere coincidence. After all, many races in the universe share much in common with language, culture, and genetics. Genetics being the most similiar of them all. I mean, how many races in this universe do you know of that are genetically incompatable with each other and can't have children?"

Cold nodded. The woman had a good point. As far as he knew, the only incompatible races in the North Galaxy were Changelings and Sai-jins. Though oddly enough both were fully compatible with the rest of the races. It was something about the Sai-jins specifically that caused the problem. Still, the large compatibility between races had been a long running matter of interest in the scientific circles and one that Dr. Gero had explored in detail as well.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Gohan stood, side-by-side with the fat version of Buu, staring down the small version... inside of his head. He was still trying to come to terms with that. It didn't help that it still hurt like hell when he got hit, either. He'd pulled out every drop of his power that he could muster but it wasn't enough. Even with his full reserves out, which made him stronger than his father's third form, the little freak was just too strong.

This fat Buu was a little stronger than him but it wasn't quite enough. He could see now how futile the fight earlier had been, prior to his father's transformation. "We need to... think of something." Gohan said, hands on his knees, panting. "Can't my dad just... pull him off of me or something?"

"Fight go fast." Buu said. "Time go faster in mind. Many hours pass in single second!"

"Perfect." he muttered, frowning. "Well, back to it then!" he cried launching in once more. Reaching the small Buu he started lashing out with a series of furious punches but the little creature just dodged around them. Realizing the physical assualt was getting him nowhere he pulled back and thrust his arms forward. Blue energy flared up and then shot out engulfing the upper half of the little creature destroying it. But, just as it had done on the outside, the destroyed body regenerated.

"Damn... hey, how are we supposed to beat this thing?" Gohan called back. "It's energy isn't going down and it can just keep regenerating!"

"Energy decrease!" the fat Buu said. "Takes long time, lots of endurance and stamina. But energy go down."

Gohan frowned. He didn't doubt the fat one knew what it was talking about but... so far he'd not noticed any drop in its strength. His thoughts were broken as the fat Buu surged passed him and started attacking the other again. Pushing his worries aside about the outcome of this endevour the Hybrid followed after him and the two attacked together. That's when it seemed to have the most trouble, when trying to dodge both of them at the same time. Understandable since, on a scale this large, there really wasn't that big a gap between them, when going two on one.

Gohan and fat Buu lashed out with kicks at the same time and smashed the smaller Buu's head between their legs. The Hybrid's fist shot out next and indented the small blob's face. The other Buu moved around behind the small one and snapped out a kick into its back knocking it forward where Gohan's knee smashed into its abdomen. This time it recovered quickly, though, and fat Buu met with an elbow to the face as he went in to attack.

The larger opponent dealt with, at least for now, the small pink creature turned its sights on the Hybrid and threw a punch for his face. His short arm would have been too shoot but it stretched out toward its target even as Gohan dodged to the side. But the arm followed his movement and slammed into his face. It snapped back and then out again smacking him again. And then again and again until the fat one suddenly surged down from above and sat on the little one.

Gohan reached up and wiped a trickle of blood off of his chin, the red fluid staining the back of his glove. He watched as fat Buu floated up and back to reveal a completely squashed small Buu. But that lasted only a moment, the pink blob quickly reformed itself with a scowl plastered on its face... both of them. It had formed a face on both sides of its head so that it could scowl at both opponents.

"What? Not as easy as you thought it'd be?" Gohan asked, a small smirk forming. He was wearing down, he knew it. And this thing wasn't, at least not that he could tell. But it was rather pleasing to know that he was annoying the thing. Suddenly he thrust his arms forward and blue light flashed from his palms. The energy surged forward catching Buu completely off guard and oblitterated everything from the knees up.

It reformed quickly enough but as soon as it had Gohan fired again. And then again and again and again every time it reformed. Suddenly his latest attack changed direction and flew off into the distance as Buu swatted it away, his scowl even deeper than before. "Well, this is fun." Gohan said, his smirk growing. Buu scowled. "What? I thought headless was an improvement over that ugly mug."

The small Buu clenched its hands into fists and then let out a scream and burst of power that knocked them both Gohan and fat Buu away. The Hybrid pulled to a stop a moment after the fat Buu did and stared on at the little one as it screamed. "I don't think he's very happy." he said, smirking a bit. "Guess the truth hurts."

"Bad Buu mad. This not good." the fat one said.

Gohan realized just how bad it was a moment later when steam started errupting from the small Buu's opennings as it had before. And then its body began to swell and its power climbed. A moment later the buffed up blob vanished. Gohan looked around for it but only barely caught a glimpse of pink before a fist smashed into his face and sent him sailing. A thunderous crack sounded a moment later as Buu appeared behind him and smashed his foot into his back knocking him the other way.

And then the creature was above him slamming its foot into his face driving him back down into the ground. Or, well, the solid though invisible surface that passed for ground in this place. He hit it hard and bounced back up again and Buu spun and smashed a fist into his gut. His battle armor there cracked and shattered under the blow. The fist stayed burried in his abdomen as the arm stretched and drove him back, and then it hooked and slammed him down into the ground before retracting.

Gohan rolled over onto his stomach and coughed up blood. "Ow... note to self. It is not smart to piss off the psychopathic bubble gum monster." he groaned, trying to stand up. He heard a loud growl from above him and got the distinct impression Buu had heard, and not approved of, his comment. He expected another bone crunching blow to come any second but the crack that sounded wasn't accompanied by pain this time.

Turning his head slightly he looked up and saw the fat Buu holding the other's Buu's fist in a gloved hand. The small Buu growled and then kicked the large one in the head knocking it away before resuming its attack against Gohan. It slammed down into his back feet first and then kicked him in the back of the head smashing his face against the ground. Then it stepped back and kicked him in the stomach sending him sailing away. As Gohan hit the ground again and slid he fought to stay concious but soon realized that that, too, was a losing battle. As he slid to a stop the world around him dimmed and then went dark.

The small Buu walked over to where Gohan lay, a satisfied look on its face, as the fat one stood again looking depressed. Suddenly the small creature realized there was someone standing behind it and it whirled around lashing out with a hard punch. There was a crack a second later as its fist was caught by a hand. The new arrival stood out amongst all the pink around him. He was a dark gray, almost black, save for a few points of red around his joints.

Suddenly Buu's eyes snapped open wide in pure terror and it started trying to pull its fist free. "So, you recognize me." the figure said in a deep voice that echoed within itself, before smirking. "Well, I don't know who you are but... this body has already been claimed. It's time for you to be leaving now!" The dark figure let out a growl as he spun and then pitched Buu into the air. He thrust one arm up after him and fired a stream of black and red energy at the creature. A second later it was engulfed in the blast as fat Buu stared on in wonder.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Gohan had fallen to the ground no more than two seconds ago and Kakkarotto was about to move in to try and get Buu off of him when he felt an unusual power. Then there was a sudden blast of black and red and Buu was blasted apart and off of his son. He looked at the raining pink blobs for a moment and then made his way over to Gohan. His son was apparently unconcious but seemed otherwise fine.

Feeling a power building behind him he turned and saw Buu reforming again. A moment later the little pink creature was in one piece and wearing an expression the Sai-jin had never seen on him before. A look of pure terror. Suddenly Buu shot up into the air a few dozen yards and then started to buff up again. Kakkarotto turned ready to resume the fight but even after Buu reached full power it continued to let out wild cries and kept gathering more power.

"What the hell is up with that thing?" Kakkarotto wondered. "Its like its gone completely insane." Hearing a groan from behind him he looked back and saw Gohan coming too again. "Good timing, I think Buu's snapped completely. What the hell was it trying to do?"

Gohan blinked as he climbed to his feet, his mind a little hazy. But as the haze cleared he remembered and he was confused. "It... tried to absorb me." he said at last.

"Absorb you?"

He nodded. "Make me part of it, to use my power. That's what it was trying with you too but I guess you were too strong for him." He reached up and put a hand to his head still feeling dizzy. "I don't get it though... I lost. The fat one and I couldn't stop him..."

"Huh?"

"It's a long story." Gohan said. "But I fought him inside my head for control of my body and I lost. By all rights I shouldn't have been freed. Unless the other one managed to kick him out somehow..."

"Explain it later." Kakkarotto said as he turned his eyes back up to Buu who was still freaking out. Suddenly the pulsing pink aura around him flashed and shrank down until it was just surrounding his fists and that's when the Sai-jin felt it. Buu hadn't just been going crazy, he'd been pushing all of his energy down to his palms! With terror still filling its eyes it thrust its arms toward the two Sai-jins and let out a few more cries before firing.

"Shit!" Kakkarotto cried thrusting his arms up and firing a counter blast at the last second. The two beams met only feet from where he stood. Gohan tried to power up, to transform, anything, but his body was still drained and his mind too fuzzy to focus. Buu started letting out more cries obviously upset by the resistance it was facing.

Then, suddenly, it moved one arm away from the attack and turned sideways. Keeping Kakkarotto occupied with his first attack he quickly gathered another around his free hand. "What!?" the Sai-jin cried, seeing what was happening. "Damn it, he's going to blast the planet!" _"Shit! If I move to stop the second attack this one will destroy the planet. If I don't move then that one will!"_

Pink energy flashed at the end of his arm and then an energy ball formed. But no sooner did it appear Buu's energy suddenly bgean to drain away. It let out a startled cry and thrust its arm down shooting the blast off but it wasn't enough and only blasted a small crater into the ground. Meanwhile Kakkarotto's counter blast was having an increasingly easy time of pushing back Buu's beam.

With a cry and thrust of his arms he pushed his energy up through Buu's. The pink creature dodged to the side at the last moment as its attack faded away and its musscles shrank. "Do you think he's finally run out of power?" Kakkarotto asked, a bit confused by what was happening. Buu was now holding his head screaming. Then it started bashing its fists against its head and, to Gohan, its cries sounded vaguely like 'Out'.

"I don't think so..." he said, shaking his head. "The fat one must be doing something."

Buu hunched over and appeared to start powering up again as steam errupted from the holes in its body and gathered above its head. As the pink steam grew in size the two Sai-jins felt a slowly increasing energy coming from it. A moment later, as Buu relaxed, the pink smoke swirled around and then formed into the fat Buu. "Buu, Buu, Buu!" he cried happily, flexing his arms and legs. "Buu free, Buu free! Buu! Buu! Buu!"

"Geez, even that thing is stronger than my third form." Kakkarotto muttered.

The fat Buu turned and looked to the small one who was now glaring at it. "Buu no like you!" he said, crossing his arms. "Buu make you go Bye-Bye now! Bye-Bye!" Suddenly the big one turned into nothing more than a blob of pink and surged at the other quickly enveloping him. The small Buu obviously wasn't going to go that easily as his efforts to escape were easily seen as the pink blob distorted every which way.

Suddenly a burst of pink tore appart the Buu caccoon and the small one was free again, a deep scowl on its face. The fat one refromed quickly frowning. "No fair! No fair!" he cried.

"Buu!" Gohan called up, an idea forming in his mind. The fat Buu looked down at him curiously but when the small one saw him again the fear came back to his face. "Come down here!"

"Okay!" he called dropping down to where the two Sai-jins stood.

"I'm totally spent, but you're still fresh." Gohan said. "I think, together, you and dad can take that little freak."

Buu blinked and then looked over to Kakkarotto who was looking back at him. Kakkarotto smirked and Buu nodded. "Buu can do! Buu can do!"

Kakkarotto turned to face the small Buu still floating up in the sky and smirked more. "Alright shrimp, your time is up!" Kakkarotto then cupped his hands at his side and braced his feet on the ground, blue energy flaring up between his palms. Buu thrust his arms up into the air and started charging pink energy. Up in the sky the small Buu growled and powered up again, quickly bulking up its body.

"Kame... hame..." The blue energy between Kakkarotto's gloved hands flashed and swelled up and then he thrust his arms up into the air. "Haaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

"Buu Cannon!" The ground cracked under Buu's feet as his gathered energy flashed twice and then a massive stream of pink shot up to join the blue. The small Buu had just finished bulking up when the attacks started up. With no time to fire a sufficient counter it instead simply thrust its arms down and caught the attacks. The impact drove it up higher into the air and it struggled to hold the twin beams of energy at bay.

Suddenly he let out an ear splitting screech and his body began to ripple and swell more. And with it his power. "Ugh... no way!" Gohan cried. "He still his more reserves!?"

"We have to keep pushing!" Kakkarotto called. "Our attack is still stronger than him."

"Do you have any more power?" Gohan asked, looking at the fat Buu. The round creature simply shook his head. Gohan was out of ideas now. His father was right, the attack was stronger than Buu, but it wasn't by much. If only he had some power left! Suddenly he left out a cry as he collapsed to his knees, eyes clenched shut, a severe pain washing through his body. This was different than his previous attacks. He wasn't sure how it was, or how he knew, but he knew this one was different.

And as the pain faded he realized what was different about it. Whatever had just happened to him had restored his power. At least, some of it. In the shape his body was in it wouldn't be able to manage his full power. But he had half of it back and that would be more than enough. In a burst of gold he transformed to the second level and added his own attack to the assualt. "Masenko ha!" he cried, the golden energy surging up, merging with the others, and meeting Buu head on.

Buu's arms started to bend back, the attack was too much for him to hold off much longer. Kakkarotto and Gohan both dug down into their powers and drew out any energy they could find pushing it into their attacks, focusing more and more power. And then Buu left out a loud cry and was engulfed in the swirling streams of energy. The attacks continued for several moments more before fading away.

Gohan was spent again and as he lowered his arms he reverted to base. His father flashed gold a second later and dropped down to the second level. Only fat Buu seemed unphased by the recent strain. Gohan couldn't feel the other Buu anymore. All the other times it had been blasted apart he'd sensed the little bits and pieces of it. But not this time. "Did we... get it?" he asked.

The fat one looked around blinking. "Buu no feel him." he said. "Buu no feel him anywhere."

Kakkarotto let out a sigh as his aura flared up and then faded, his power dropping quickly as he reverted to base. "That attack should have atomized him. So unless he's immortal he's toast." he said, wiping off his brow with the back of his arm. "And I could always sense him a little before. And if he's not gone for good then we'll just blast him apart again next time he surfaces."

With that he turned to face the fat Buu and crossed his arms. "Question is, what do we do about you? You're the second strongest being in the entire universe now..."

"I'm more interested in where that power came from." Gohan said stretching to work some kinks out of his sore musscles. "I've never had an attack that's restored my power before."

Kakkarotto frowned. That was a new occurence and something the Doctor would definately want to investigate. "Well, we'll figure it out later. Let's head back to Saiya for now."

"Buu come too?" Buu asked, looking back and forth between the two.

Kakkarotto shrugged. "Sure, why not."

"Yay, yay! Buu have new friends!"


	22. The World at the Center of the Universe

**Part Three: Revelations**

_Chapter Twenty-two - The World at the Center of the Universe_

Eve rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands to try and help her focus better. Tracking down information on Tinto, information that wasn't publicly displayed at least, was a lot more complicated than finding the birth records had been. She had to sort through reports, logs, and numerous data feeds from around that time to try and narrow down the field to something that was actually useful.

Looking at the screen again she scrolled through some more of the data and stopped. "Oh, hey, hey!" she cried out. "This could be something!"

"What is it?" Xeno asked walking over.

"A hidden directory burried deep inside Cooler's top level restricted area." she replied as she clicked on it. "Ok, this is definately something. I'm already in a maximum security sector and this directory is hidden and it's _still_ asking for a password."

"Can you crack it?" Everfrost asked.

"Let's find out..." she said as she pulled up a program and ran a few checks. "Oh, wow, it uses ZZ6-3Z encryption. That'd take an eternity to crack. Damn. Hmm... maybe..." Her fingers flew over the keys as she tried something else. A moment later she smirked. "Ah, perfect!" she declared happily. "Just as I thought. The directory uses ZZ6-3Z encryption and an SI5 decryptor but the password database file is only in D1-2A encryption. I can crack that easily."

A moment later she had proven her statement true and was looking at the decrypted password file. Taking that information she had access to the hidden directory a moment later. "Let's see here..." she said as she scanned over the contents and then suddenly smiled. "Jackpot. These have to be the files I've been searching for. There's a number of scouter transmission recordings stored here and a number of other files..." she stopped as one of the file names caught her eye. "There's a file here on that Constant Zenkai thing."

"What's it say?" Storm asked as she and the others walked over.

"One second." replied the Nezorf as she opend the file and then scanned it. It was entirely in Sai-jin and it took her moment. "Ok, it's a research report from Dr. Gero dated about five years ago. Odd though, it's directed at Master Vegeta."

"Master Cooler may have copied it." Storm suggested.

"Possible. Anyway, apparently Master Vegeta was looking into a way to induce the Constant Zenkai condition that Brolly and Master Kakkarotto had."

Rain snorted. "Of course. Anything to make himself even stronger."

Eve nodded. "Seems Dr. Gero voided the idea though. He said it was too dangerous." she scanned the file a bit more and whistled. "Here's something left out of the records. The actual levels of the chemical that causes the Zenkai. Normal levels at recovery are 5 per million for a span of a few seconds. Two to five at most. Master Kakkarotto's got a consant level of 2 per million. Brolly's level was... 10 per million."

"10!?" Storm asked surprised.

"I guess Brolly being over 3,000,000 at six isn't so absurd after all." Everfrost said, equally shocked.

Eve nodded again. "Gero even notes it. He says it's the reason why Brolly's power was... wait, what?"

Xeno looked at the screen trying to see what Eve did but to no avail. "What is it? Don't leave us in the dark."

"According to this Brolly's power was only one and a half million." she said. "But that doesn't match up to Bardock's..." She scanned some more. "What!?" she cried a second later. "Holy shit!" she leaned back and swallowed. "Apparently... apparently Brolly was a Super Sai-jin as well!"

"Are you serious?" asked Rain.

"That's what this says." replied Eve. She took a breath and then looked at the file again. "Let's see... yeah, he's mentioning how he can see the appeal of the Constant Zenkai effect citing Brolly and Master Kakkarotto's powers but says it's unwise due to..." she blinked. "Due to the increased risk of mental problems developing, including complete insanity..." The group all looked up and over at the cryostasis chamber at the same time. None of them liked the thought of someone as powerful as Master Kakkarotto running around insane.

"What about the other files? Anything on Tinto itself?" asked Everfrost.

"Hold on." said Eve, closing that file. She scanned over the listed files again and then opened another one. "Based on the tags for this it's a scouter transmission recording from Bardock's scouter." Eve moved up and clicked the play button.

"You can't win, just give up and make this easy on yourself." a voice said. The five gathered around the computer looked at each other. They knew that voice. It was Master Cooler.

"Sorry, I don't know how to give up." replied Bardock's voice.

Cooler snorted. "This little insurrection of yours is dead. Even Brolly couldn't stand up to your Prince. Face it, you've failed!"

"Maybe." said Bardock, a smug tone to his voice. "But you're wrong about something. This isn't an insurrection. I know. I know what you're planning Cooler! That's why I'm here. I'm here to stop you."

"You? Stop me? That's a laugh Sai-jin. Your kind wouldn't even exist anymore if my father had any sense to him. But I'll correct that eventually. Once I have the needed items and can find the Ancient's Homeworld I will become the ruler of this universe!"

"Over my dead body!"

Then a new voice spoke. One that they didn't recognize. "That can be arranged, brother."

"Turles!?" Bardock cried in shock. "You..."

"Yes. I joined with Cooler. I'm sick of living under the shadow of the royals. Being looked down on all the time. At least the Changelings show respect for my power!"

Eve hit pause on the playback, her eyes wide in complete disbelief as she tried to absorb what she'd just heard. "That's... Holy shit." was all she could manage to say. "Do... do you think that... Turles is still working for Cooler?" she asked the others, glancing back at them.

"I don't know..." Xeno said softly. "Is he really working for Slug or is he spying on Slug? Or... is Slug secretly working for Cooler as well? Start it up again."

Eve nodded and clicked play once more. "You're delusional Turles!" Bardock growled. "You're just being used! How could you turn on your own people like this?"

"They never gave me any reason not to." he replied. "So, what's it going to be brother. Give up now and join us or die here? You barely have the strength left to stand, you couldn't even scratch me now, let alone Cooler. Face it, you're finished."

Bardock growled. "You're forgetting something, I am a Sai-jin! I do not give up, I do not surrender, and I do not lose. You're right, I'm finished, I'm not leaving this world alive. I know that, even if you left me here I'd be dead in a couple of hours. But when I go I plan on taking you with me!" And then his screams sounded over through the speakers.

"Gah, damn it!" Turles cried. "He's insane!"

"What's he doing?" demanded Cooler.

"He's going to blow himself up! He'll destroy the entire planet!"

Cooler growled. "Not on my watch. Good-bye Sai-jin! Death Beam!" Suddenly the screams ended. They heard a few foot steps approaching and then the file went dead.

"What the hell?" Everfrost muttered taking a seat. "That's... not right. Bardock's speech is the same but everything else. And... if Cooler killed Bardock then who destroyed Tinto?"

"I'll see if I can find anything..." Eve said softly before setting to work.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Tien swallowed as he took his hand off of North Kai's back. "That was... unbelievable." he said, still absorbing it. The battle between Kakkarotto and Buu had just ended and his mind was still having trouble grasping it all. "Unfortunately it looks like it only made our jobs harder. The Supreme Kai was hoping Buu would take out some of the Masters before going down. Instead he made Kakkarotto transform again and gave them another new member."

"Perhaps." North Kai said. "However, the Buu that remains is not pure evil like the small one was. He has goodness in him. After spending time with the Masters he may decide that they are no better than his evil half."

"But if he doesn't we'll have to fight him." Enzeru said, crossing her arms. "I still don't see how we'll ever be that poweful."

"We wont get there at all if we just stand around here all day." Mitsuki said. "I want to take another crack at that monkey." She turned and faced Bubbles and then shot off toward him. The monkey screeched in shock at the short warning of the pursuit and then bolted in a blur of brown. Mitsuki redirected her course and a moment later they all heard another screech and Bubbles came running back up from the way he'd gone.

Bubbles came to a stop a few feet away, screeched again, and then bolted to the left. A second later a purple aura zipped toward them and then hooked to the opposite direction Bubbles had gone. "That's... look at her go!" Yamcha cried, wide-eyed. He couldn't believe how quickly she was moving. "That... doesn't make sense, how is she going so fast?"

North Kai clasped his hands behind his back as the light glinted off his sunglasses. He hadn't expected this to occur so soon. But there it was. He could feel Mitsuki's power increasing right along with her speed. He wasn't the only one. "H-hey, her power!" Krillin cried, eyes widening.

"What's going on?" Enzeru wonded.

Suddenly Bubbles pulled to a stop directly in front of them and started looking around him franticly. "Got you!" Mitsuki cried coming up around again. Bubbles shrieked and went to run off the other way and froze as he saw Mitsuki there as well. And then the one behind him grabbed him and the one in the front vanished.

"How... how did you do that?" Tien asked shocked. He could feel that her power was still higher than it had been before. A lot higher.

Mitsuki blinked, not sure what they meant at first, and then felt it herself. "I... I don't know..."

"I do." said the North Kai. "Dr. Gero called it Adaptive Zenkai. It's one of the modifications he made to Mitsuki's DNA. Under the proper conditions she experiences a condition similar to the Sai-jin Battle Zenkai, the one that can activate during a firece battle, which will increase her power to match the situation she is in." he explained "There are dangers, however. If it boosts her power by too much at any one time it could kill her."

North Kai looked over to Mitsuki who was still holding Bubbles. "I had not anticpated it to occur during this training, however. Dr. Gero had ruled it a failed experiment since he could never get it to activate. I believed it would require an intense and strenous situation similar to that which can trigger the Sai-jins Super Sai-jin transoformations. Apparently not..."

Mituski looked to the short Kai as she set Bubbles down, and then down at her own hands. "I didn't even know about that..."

"Yes, well, we can't rely on it." North Kaid sternly. "It seems even more unpredictable than I had first thought. Not only that but the dangers that acompany it are far too high to risk. You will train and fight as though it does not exist." Mitsuki nodded in agreement. "Alright then, Krillin, Yamcha, you still have to catch Bubbles. Get to it!"

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Trunks frowned as he set the box of documents down on the counter with the rest of them. He still couldn't figure out how Videl had roped him into doing what was, technically, her job. But here he was moving all the old paper documents from storage and into the lab to have them transfered to the computer. Fortunately they'd found a more efficent means of doing that part than having someone type them in by hand. 19 was scanning the pages and converting the data on them into files in his databanks and then sending them into Gero's central computer.

Admittedly, however, his task was far more fun than the one Videl had undertaken. He'd heard the scream about four minutes ago now. Something along the lines of "You want to do what to my baby!?", though he wasn't entirely sure since Chi-Chi was on the opposite side of the palace. Letting out a sigh he rubbed his arm across his brow. "That's the last box." he said.

"Good. 19 should have all of this converted within the next couple hours." Gero said from where he stood going over some other data.

Trunks nodded and walked over to the tank were Tenshi was floating. He'd only seen her a few times before and it always kind of creeped him out. Hearing the door open he glanced back and saw Videl enter the room. "Well, I've got good news and great news." she said. "The good news is that Chi-Chi agreed to it after I mentioned that it was to help Gohan with his condition. The great news is that Gohan and Master Kakkarotto are on their way back as we speak. Buu, at least one of them, is dead."

"One of them?" Trunks asked confused.

Videl nodded. "Apparently the fat one we saw on the video was still alive after all." she said. "And it was trapped inside the other one. During the battle, though, he managed to get out and helped to defeat the small guy."

"Interesting..." Gero said pursing his lips.

"Oh, and Gohan wanted me to let you know he had three attacks while he was out there, and one of them actually gave him back power after he was out."

"Gave him back..." Trunks repeated. "That's a new one."

"Indeed." concured Gero. "Definately worth investigating."

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Marron definately felt better now that she'd had a shower and changed. Though her mind was still spinning from earlier. While she was in the shower she had found herself wondering exactly how she'd gotten to where she was. A month ago she was just an average person leading an average life. Now she was the daughter of a Master and... the mate of another. Her mind was still having some trouble with that. More the fact that Bra was a Master than that she was female. The more she thought about the girl the happier she seemed to get.

She shook her head as she reached her destination and knocked on the door. "It's open." came Bulma's voice from the otherside. Taking a deep breath she reached out and opened the door. As she looked around the other woman's study she closed the door behind her. Bulma was, once again, hard at work on her equations. The woman didn't even slow in her work as Marron entered.

The blonde looked over the boards upon boards of math still in awe. She'd didn't know all of the advanced mathmatics required to make full sense of the equations but she knew enough to understand just how complex and powerful it was. If Bulma could work this out far enough she could even be able to predict the future to a limited extent. Nothing in exacts but she would be able to tell if the balance was off.

"Oh, hello Marron." Bulma said glancing back at the girl as she took a step back to look over her math.

"Hello Mistress Bulma."

"Please, just Bulma." the other woman said with a small frown. "I've never particularly cared for all of that formality."

"Alright, Bulma it is then. So, how are things comming along?"

Bulma smiled. "Slowly, but they're coming. I've had to split my math though. Since I can't determine the exact effect Buu had on the universe when he was created I have to do equations for each possibility... Though, I did learn something interesting."

"Oh?"

Bulma nodded and then walked over to her and leaned in so that her mouth was by the other's ear. "Keep this to yourself, tell only 18 next time you see her, but the Humans survived."

Marron blinked as Bulma leaned back again. "Wha-what? How?"

The other woman shook her head. "I don't know, but the math says that's what happened."

The blonde looked toward the boards in shock. "18 will be happy when she gets back." she said after a moment. Then she looked back over to Bulma. "Have you heard yet? About how the battle went with Buu?"

Bulma shook her head no. "I know they started fighting but that's it. Is it over?"

Marron nodded. "Yeah, it is. The small Buu is dead, the fat one is on its way here with Masters Gohan and Kakkarotto, and Master Kakkarotto transformed to the fourth level."

Bulma turned back to her boards and looked at each of the four she'd been working on. "Kakkarotto transformed again and there's still a Buu left..." she said softly. "Do you know how strong the fat one is?" she asked after a moment.

"According to Mistress Videl... a little stronger than Master Kakkarotto's third form. I don't know the exact level."

The blue haired woman nodded and moved over to one of her equations and started filling in information again. "Oh, by the way, I think Bra wanted to talk to you about something." she said as she worked. "Has she had the chance?"

Marron felt her face get warm and realized she was blushing. She hid this by looking toward the nearest chalkboard as she answered. "Yeah. She brought it up a little while ago, after her spar with Master Trunks." she said.

Bulma didn't bother to look at her and just kept working. She could hear in her voice anything she could have seen on her face. "So, what was your answer, or are you still thinking about it?"

Marron bit her lip and turned to face the other woman again. "I... said yes." she said at last. "I'm still not entirely sure if it'll work out but, as we talked, I realized that I wanted to find out too."

At this Bulma stopped in her work and looked over to the blonde again, smiling a little. "It's nice to know she's found someone again. I was kind of worried she'd crawl into her shell and ignore the world for months, if not years, after Goten died." She turned back to her work as she continued. "I kind of had the feeling she'd at least have a crush on you..."

"Y-you did?"

"Yeah. She's had one on 18 for years and you look a lot like your mother. And more than just looks, you act a lot like her too. The real her, anyway. Not the version she shows to the public. Even I don't see the real 18 that often. But Bra always could. I think she sees in you the same things she sees in 18."

"So... it's just because I'm like my mother?"

Bulma turned from her work and blinked before shaking her head. "Oh, no. No. I didn't mean that. She doesn't see you as a replacement to 18. You just share qualities with her that Bra likes. Even I've noticed that so I knew she would notice. It's not that 18 has those qualities, it's the qualities themselves." Bulma frowned suddenly. "I'm really no good at this sort of thing..."

Marron laughed. "It's ok. I think I get it."

"Good." she said going back to work again.

Marron stood there in silence for a moment wondering how to phrase the questions she had while also watching on in awe as the brilliant woman worked away doing really high level math in her mind as she went. "Ummm... Did... did Master Vegeta ever offer you a position as a Master?" she asked at last, slowly. "I mean, an actual title that would grant you the Eternal Youth that the others have."

Bulma kept working for a moment longer and then sighed and shook her head. "No. He didn't. Kakkarotto did offer Chi-Chi a position, though. But she turned it down. And... I think I would have too. Not that Vegeta would have ever suggested it. And if Chi-Chi had accepted I have no doubt he'd have been rather upset with Kakkarotto for a while about it. He's... pretty strict about who gets to join. To him... to him Human mates are good only for mates and nothing more. It's one of his rougher edges."

"Oh..."

"Why? Did Bra suggest it?"

Marron nodded. "Yeah, she did. And... I'm not really sure about it. I mean... I don't know if I'd like to live forever. You know?"

"I know the thought. Chi-Chi and I talked about it a lot ourselves years ago. There's an appeal there, to not aging anymore. No wrinkles is definately a big selling point." she said with a laugh. "But... I have a few friends around the palace, outside of the Masters, and I don't think I could take watching them all grow old and die and then making new ones just to watch it happen all over again."

"Yeah... those were my thoughts too. But... I know Bra wants it. I know she wont push for it either but..."

"Listen, don't do it because you think Bra would want you to." Bulma said shaking her head. "She wouldn't want you to be unhappy forever. If you choose it for her sake and regret it later she'll blame herself. I know she would. As long as you choose what you want she'll be happy with it."

"Alright. Thanks Bulma."

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Cold watched the montior as the blue and white lights began to appear in the empty black void infront of the ship. He was, once again, aboard Inferna's ship. Once he'd learned they'd determined they could create a Worm Hole in this location he had shuttled over to watch the process. He had to admit it was quite the sight. The pulsing light before him began to open in the middle and a swirling tunnel of light lead off into the distance. A moment later Inferna's ship, followed by his own, entered the gap in space.

"Lady Inferna!" one of the techs called from their terminal, only a few seconds after entering the Worm Hole, as they turned in their seat to look back at where she was. "I'm getting an odd reading from the Worm Hole system."

"How so?" she asked.

"It appears to be some sort of spatial gap." he said. "I've never seen a reading like this before. It's like the Worm Hole dead ends in the middle of nothing."

Inferna furrowed her brow and looked up at the monitor again. The Worm Hole stretched ahead of them for several hundred miles before making a sharp turn up and to the right. She couldn't see passed that bend. "Slow to half speed and continue to scan." she ordered. "It may be an echo but..."

"Understood." the tech replied. The ship slowed but the bend still came closer and closer. They were still a good distance away when the tech looked back again. "I'm getting ressonance readings now. I've never seen anything like this before, it shouldn't be possible... but according to these readings there's something _big_ inside of the Worm Hole."

"Define big."

"By these readings... at least four light years in diameter."

"Four lightyears!?" Inferna asked in shock.

"Confirmed, ma'am." the tech said as he looked over his screens again. "The Worm Hole ends in two hunded seven miles but it doesn't enter real space. The object is located inside this... pocket of sorts."

Inferna and Cold shared glances of interest and then turned their eyes back to the monitor. They had reached the bend now. As the ship rounded the corner they caught sight of the tunnel's end. It emerged into the impossible. Blue skies with a few clouds. They continued on in silence until, at last, they emerged from the Worm Hole. Sure enough there were blue skies and whispy clouds above. Below was a grass field that stretched on for miles in all directions. As Cold's ship emerged into this place as well the Worm Hole closed behind them.

"Bring up a three sixty view." Inferna ordered. Instantly the six large montiors that took up the left and right sides and front of the command room switched to displaying a full three hundred and sixty degree view of the world around them. The image was slightly distorted, cramming three hundred and sixty degrees of video into only a hundred and eighty, but they could make out things well enough. They appeared to be on a massive planet and, about a hundred miles from their location, was a massive and ornate palace.

"Lady Inferna!" a new tech called out. "Spatial integrity is restoring. It's just passed 95 again, we can't open another Worm Hole."

"It appears we are stuck here." Cold said as he gazed at the monitors. "Wherever here is."

"Well, I'm open to suggestions." Inferna said crossing her arms and frowning slightly.

"May as well explore." Cold replied. "There may be people here who can tell us what is going on."

Inferna thought about it for a moment and then noded. "Alright. Pilot, take us over to that struture and set us down." The man at the ship's controls nodded and complied. As they approached they switched the screens to front view only and the palace filed the screen. It was a massive structure made of what looked like white marble.

Even Cold was amazed by its size. "This place is even larger than my palace and it's the largest in the whole empire." he said as they neared. "How large is it?"

"I would say almost... five hundred-thousand square miles." a tech said. "Ground cover wise. Highest point is about five miles. Easily has a volume of over 1.5 million cubic miles."

"One and a half million miles worth of space..." Inferna said in awe. A moment later they'd reached the palace and their ships were landing just beyond what appeared to be the front stairs. Cold watched as the top of the stairs went passed the monitor and the ground came up to meet them. The stairs alone, up to the front doors, were at least three floors. As the ship jostled slightly from the landing he and Inferna turned toward each other.

"Well then, shall we investigate?" he asked.

"Beats staying here." she replied before turning to another tech. "Arrange for an escort to meet us at port 8." she ordered. "No more than twenty people. If there are inhabitants here we don't want them thinking we're hostile. It'll make our stay that much smoother."

"Yes ma'am."

Inferna nodded and then turned. "Well then, shall we?" Cold nodded to her and the two made their way from the bridge and to the port 8 exit. The door hissed as it swung open, the wall becoming stairs leading down. As it clicked into place a small gathering of about fifteen soldiers joined them. Down on the ground Cold's own personal guard, the three man Fyuu Elite Guard, had already gathered and were waiting.

"I'm not picking up any powerlevels anywhere in range." Fyuu reported as Cold reached him. He was only about as tall as Inferna but still looked tall and lanky. Mainly due to the fact that he was so thin, looking more like a walking skeleton than the powerful fighter he was. His skin was an ice blue, his eyes white irises with black pupils set in black eyes, and he was bald. He had on a white body suit and white and blue armor.

As they walked the other two members of the team fell in place beside Cold. Yiku on the right and Rikoo on the left. Yiku was the only one of the three, and only member of any of the Changeling's elite teams, that was female. And she towered over those present, save Cold himself. At nine feet and eight inches, and with muscles as big as Cold, she was the reverse of the team commander. She had dark purple hair that reached halfway down her back, light blue eyes, and deep blue skin. She, too, had on a white body suit with white and blue armor but also had on white boots and gloves.

Rikoo was of the same race as Yiku, in fact they were brother and sister. And the differences between the men and women of their race stood out strongly in the two of them. Rikoo was only six foot two and his muscles were smaller. He also had two small white horns on his forhead that only extended a couple inches. His skin was a slightly lighter shade of blue but his eyes and hair, though it was only shoulder length, were the same color. He wore the same armor, boots, and gloves as his sister too.

The group of twenty made their way across the stone path their ships had landed beside and then began the ascent up the stairs to the entrance. "Any thoughts on where we are or how we got here?" Cold asked as they climbed. He'd noticed this world was like no other he'd ever seen. Beyond the size of the world, larger than any solar system he'd ever heard of, the world had, at least that he could see, thirteen different suns.

"No idea." Inferna said. "Nothing like this has ever occured before. But by now the science division on my ship is going full tilt to figure it out, and probably loving every second of it. No doubt the ones you brought for studying the South Galaxy feel the same."


	23. A Costly Decision

_Chapter Twenty-three - A Costly Decision_

Marron had watched on intently as Bulma filed up six more chalkboards with her equations. She'd managed to fill out all four branching paths and she wasn't particularly happy about how any of them had turned out. "What's the problem?" Marron asked looking over the math. As she'd watched she'd figured out a few things but she didn't know the shorthand Bulma used, or what each varriable represented, to get a good grasp on it.

"Well... no matter which model we use... things are still out of wack." Bulma said with a sigh. "While it's true that all living things absorb and release equal amounts of energy it's also true that when a new transformation is attained vast ammounts of energy are absorbed in the process and not instantly released again. It takes time. Days, weeks, months, even years for it all to filter back out, depending on the race.

"With a Sai-jin... the release is slow. With the ammount of power Kakkarotto absorbed via his transformation it'll take two, maybe three years to filter it back into the universe. Beyond this the displacement in power created by his sudden transformation is felt two fold due to the vacum left by Buu's death."

"But, wouldn't the other Buu counter that?" Marron asked.

"I thought of that..." Bulma said, moving over to another board. "I actually had to branch off on this equation here to add some things up. Here, take a look at my SyncScope." the woman said pointing to a poidum like device at one side of the room. She'd consulted it several times during her math but Marron hadn't known why. As she approached it and gazed at the green glass display she learned why.

"This... it's an energy meter."

"Exactly. It keeps track of the energy levels around the universe. Well, an estimation of the average. The dispersion of energy through the universe isn't constant. There's pockets and fluxes naturally. Beyond that the center is always weaker than the outer."

"How come?" Marron asked, looking up from the device.

"The energy is pulled out from the center of the universe." Bulma explained. "Drawn out to where it's needed. And then it slowly washes back in to fill the void between the galaxies. That's what the Eye of the Universe really is, a storage site for all the extra energy in the universe. So that's where the instabilities will surface first. Not that I've detected any just yet. But that SyncScope paints the picture clear as can be."

Marron looked down at it again. She knew how to read these devices. They'd been designed to scan planets for destablized Xerudia deposits. The more the line waved across the screen the more energy was flowing through it. The line on the screen she saw wasn't all that wavy. "But how accurate is this for that kind of thing?"

"Best there is. I've modified it extensively. It no longer detects high frequency X-Proton energy, but base energy. Ether. See the red number?" Marron looked and nodded when she did. "What's it read now?"

"Umm, 63."

Bulma sighed. "63 now? It was only 62 when I looked earlier. It's getting worse. The reason the number is red is because it's below 0, or balanced levels. 63 points is a lot of difference from the balance. A lot of difference."

"How much?"

Bulma turned to look at her. "Buu appeared while the scale was at 40." she replied. The blonde's eyes widened a bit and Bulma nodded. "I had thought that Buu's destruction would have brought us closer to 0 again. But instead we've dropped even further off. And it can't all be Kakkarotto's transformation. That would have changed it by a few points but not this many. The fat Buu couldn't be the cause either. And together the two of them couldn't add up to more than 10 points. What's more, since this other Buu is weaker than the other he should cause less distortion than the small one. Instead the opposite seems to be happening."

She sighed. "I'm worried... worried that we've already gone passed the point of no return. Passed the level of damage where the universe could heal itself given the time. And now everything causes even worse damage than before. If that's the case then everything that occurs will just tip the balance further. Everything will just cause more damage at ever increasing ammounts. Until... Until the universe can no longer sustain itself and is destroyed."

"That... that's possible?" Marron asked shocked.

Bulma nodded. "Yeah, it is. If we're passed that point then... any attempts made by the universe to restore the balance will only cause it to tip further out of wack. Eventually... something has to give."

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Cold, Inferna, and their escorts looked around them in awe. They had stepped through the large doors of the building and now stood in a massive room, if it could really be called a room. It was at least three hundred yards wide, a thousand yards long, and two hundred yards high. From the ceiling hung dozens chandeliers made of gold and crystal and they came to life as the group entered the chamber.

The floor was made of marble, as were the walls. The ceiling appeared to be made of gold, or at least gold plated. Golden collums stood through out the room reaching from floor to ceiling to help support it. Gold trim lined the joints between ceiling and walls, walls and floors, and even between each wall. At the opposite end appeared to be a large statue, but from this distance it was hard to make out details.

What stuck out the most about the room was the pristine condition it was in. The gold still glinted in the light and there wasn't a crack to be seen. "Amazing..." Inferna said walking into the room and looking around. "It's in such good condition... there must be people here, or they must have only recently left."

"Perhaps." Cold said as he walked further into the room himself. "But I would expect anyone cappable of building something like this would be cappable of preserving it in perfect condition indefinately."

Inferna nodded as she continued looking around. "Yes, true." she said. "Do you think... could this be the homeworld of those Ancients you mentioned?"

Cold was about to reply when a voice interupted him. "Lady Inferna!"

She turned and looked and found one of her soldiers looking at the wall. "What is it?"

"It's writing." he said back. "I've seen it before. I think. It looks a bit like archaic Indolean."

Inferna raised an eyebrow and then walked over and looked at the text engraved on the wall. As she did she realized writing reached from ceiling to floor and it looked like it stretched the entire wall too. If this was on every wall... there would be over ten billion words here. She ran her fingers across the words as she scanned them over and she recognized some of the grammer and words as well. "Indolean you say?" she asked.

"Yes ma'am."

"Interesting. I recognize elements of archaic Valkano here as well."

"Let me see." Cold said walking over to look as well. He scanned over the wall as well, his expression changing from curiosity to shock to intense interest as he read. "My word... this is most interesting." he said. "I recognize elements of archaic Changeling, Sai-jin, Human, Vaadaa, Aisu-jin, and even elements of the Ancient's language..."

"What do you think it means?"

"I'm not sure. But I do not think this is Homeworld. This writing makes me think that this place pre-dates even the Ancients. This is... most interesting indeed." He turned to the nearest member of his guard. "Fyuu, send orders back to my ship. I want the entire science team I brought in here analyzing every inch of these walls."

"At once sire." he said with a small bow.

Cold nodded and then looked back at the wall again. "What is really odd about this writting..." he said after a moment. "Is that it isn't consistent with itself."

"How so?" asked Inferna as she looked it over.

"Well, here, look at this. This word is pure archiac Changeling. But this one here, right after it, is a mix of Changeling and Sai-jin. And I just saw that same word a little higher in pure Ancient. Granted, the languages have similiarities between them so in such writing as this it is hard to determine what is purely one race over another. But there are spelling differences, wording changes, etc, that make it more likely that it's got one origin over another."

"You sound like you know a lot about languages."

"Language, culture, and history have always interested me." he replied. "Ever since I first started noting the similarities between the races of the universe I've been interested in finding some sort of link between them."

"A link? Like what?"

Cold shruged and shook his head. "I don't know. A common ancestry, a common point origin, maybe an ancient empire that spanned the galaxies and allowed all the cultures to mingle and mix. Maybe something I hadn't thought of."

Inferna nodded. She wasn't so sure how likely a common ancestry or point of origin was, but there was always the chance some old empire had come and gone and that it had spread language and cultre to all the worlds. It certainly would explain all the similarities between the different cultures of the different races. As she looked back she read over some of what was written on the wall. Actually read it instead of just examining it. "Hmm, this looks like recorded history..." she said.

"Oh?" Cold asked and then read over part of the wall himself. "You're right, this does look like a recorded history. Bit of an odd place to do it though, don't you think?"

"Not if this room had some major significance to these people." Inferna said. "And judging by its desgin I would say it did." As she finished speaking a small army of a three hundred and fifty scientists began entering the room. The three hundred Cold had brought for studying the South Galaxy and the fifty that had come with Inferna to study the North Galaxy during her visit.

As Fyuu joined him again Cold moved away from the wall to give the scientists that were swarming it some more room. Hopefully they'd be able to fully decipher the text written on it. Granted, the fact it was in mostly known languages, although ancient versions of them, meant some of it was vaguely readable. Even so, it was far from enough for a clear picture. And the meanings of some of the words used had changed over the millenia which would make some lines sound like gibberish to those not trained to know the old languages.

With more experienced people at work on the walls he decided to go investigate the other feature of the room. The statue at the opposite end. Obviously Inferna had the same idea as she was already walking that way. Cold followed after her as he gazed up at the towering figure. He judged the room to be at least two hundred yards in height which would make the statue only a couple of feet shorter. The very top of it nearly touched the ceiling.

The statue was either made of gold or was gold plated and the figure was that of a woman who could have almost passed as Human or Sai-jin. The 'almost' was because she had a pair of horns upon her head much like his own. They were considerablly smaller, didn't go up any higher than the top of her head. But they were there. They emerged from the side of her head completely horizontally, reached out a few feet, and then hooked up. If the statue were Inferna's size he figured the horns would be no more than two feet long at the most.

Her hair hung down over shoulders and about halfway down her back. She was completely nude and she stood with her head tilted up slightly, her eyes closed, and her arms at her sides and slightly out. Almost like those images he'd seen of those beings... what had the Humans called them again? Angels, right. That was it. The statue was almost like the drawings he'd seen of Angels rising up into Heaven. It certainly had that 'otherworldy' feel to it.

He had reached the base of the statue now, as had Inferna, and she was already reading the inscription. "Any idea what it says?" he asked. He noted there really wasn't much writing there and figured she'd probably read it over a half dozen times by now.

"I think so..." she replied. "If I'm right, it says 'The Goddess of Creation, Souzousha. Creator and Protector of the Universe.'" she said.

"Hmm." Cold thought, rubbing his chin. "A goddess, eh? Perhaps this was a shrine of some sort? Or it could have been the central point of their religion. A building of this size no doubt could have housed a metropolis' worth of people."

"A holy city for this world's former inhabitants?" Inferna pondered aloud. "It's interesting, though. I've never heard of this Souzousha before. Every race I've ever encounted has always spoken of the Kais."

"Indeed." Cold concurred. "There have been a handful of races with more than one religion, but I don't think we have ever met a race that didn't at least know the word Kai. Even the Ancients spoke of the Kais, though they refered to them as the 'child gods' on more than one occasion. There were some refrences to other forces or entites above and beyond the Kais but never anything specific."

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Kakkarotto yawned and stretched as he walked down the hall of the ship toward the exit. They'd finally returned to Saiya again and it was time to get off but he was still rather tired. He'd expended more energy in that battle than he'd thought he had. Him and Gohan both. They'd slept almost the entire trip home. As he walked down the stairs off the ship he saw Gohan and Buu already there and talking with Gero and Vegeta.

"What's up?" He asked reaching them.

"Just getting things settled." Gohan said as Gero and Buu walked off. "Gero wants to run a few tests on Buu while we talk with Vegeta about something, then he's going to do some tests on me too."

Kakkarotto looked over to Vegeta. "Talk to you about something? Did something happen here while we were gone?"

Vegeta nodded. "Something we need to discuss. But not here. We'll head to the conference room." And with that the Sai-jin King turned and walked off. The other two Sai-jins glanced at each other and then followed after him. There wasn't much they couldn't talk about in the open and so both were curious as to what this was about. A few moments later they reached the conference room and Vegeta sealed the door behind them.

"What's up Vegeta?" Gohan asked, beyond curious.

"Trunks came to me while you two were fighting Buu." he explained as he walked over to the table and took a seat. He put his elbows on the table, clasped his hands together, and rested his chin on them. "He and Bra were sparing when a stray energy blast nearly hit Marron. The girl... her power suddenly spiked to a level comparable to Gohan's base."

"What!?" Kakkarotto cried in shock. "Are you serious?"

Vegeta nodded slightly. "Yes. It was only temporary and she apparently didn't realize it. I don't know what could have caused such a power spike but it's dangerous no matter the source. At that level she could kill Bra, Trunks, me, even you, Kakkarotto, while we're in base. She's an unknown, more so than anyone before her. And with her father being who he is..."

"Right." Gohan said, leaning back against the wall and crossing his arms over his chest.

"Yeah, but, he's dead." Kakkarotto said, shaking his head.

"That doesn't mean she can't decide to side with any new Human resistance groups that form." Gohan said. "Or just decide on her own to retaliate, if she ever learned to control it. And there's no telling if that was her full power or not."

"Those were my thoughts." Vegeta said. "But this is a... delicate matter. 18's state of mind hasn't quite returned to what it was before the poisioning incident. Or, should I say, before the destruction of the Earth."

"She still cared about Krillin." Gohan said, his eyes narrowing a bit as he thought. "She knew there was nothing she could do, though, and simply accepted the Earth's fate. But I've noticed, too, that it hasn't exactly sat well with her. She's always been soft. I think the only things that have helped her keep herself together are Trunks and Marron."

Vegeta nodded again. "Yes. She's got them to help keep her going or she would have likely slipped when the Earth's destruction was ordered. However, I don't think even Trunks is enough for her to hang on to if something were to happen to Marron, at our orders at least. But, if it were to be some outside cause..."

"She'd have an outlet for her emotions." Kakkarotto said, getting where Vegeta was going. "She'd have something or someone to direct her feelings toward, something to fight for."

"Exactly."

"What did you have in mind?" Gohan asked.

"Slug." the Sai-jin royal replied. "We stage an incident involving him that results in Marron's death. I believe she's being sent to Gorneo in a few more days. I can send Trunks along with the orders. He knows how to set up staged attacks like this. The Gorneo project has been the source of problems lately anyway. I was thinking of just sending someone to whip them into shape, but wiping them all out works just as well."

Gohan stood there in thought for a few moments before looking up at Vegeta again. "What about Bra?"

"Bra?" Vegeta asked, confused. "What about her?"

"You mean you haven't noticed?" asked the Hybrid, raising an eyebrow.

"Noticed what?"

"The way she's been watching Marron. Starring at her might describe it better. The way she acts around her, looks at her."

Vegeta's eyes widened slowly as he realized what Gohan was suggesting. "You think that...?"

Gohan shook his head. "No, I don't think. I know."

"Know what?" Kakkarotto asked lost. "What is it?"

His son glanced over to him. "Bra's been looking at Marron as a possible mate. Pretty much everyone's noticed. Videl's mentioned it to me more than once. Trunks even brought it up about a week ago."

"You're kidding!?" his father asked, suprised. "But... they're both girls... how does that work?!"

Gohan blinked, sighed, and hung his head. "Anyway, what I'm getting at is that 18's reaction isn't the only one we need to consider here. I don't really think Bra would have as bad a reaction as 18 but... well, you know how she can get."

Vegeta pursed his lips. Gohan had a point there. "Well, with our current plan that shouldn't be a problem either. Neither Bra or Trunks has mentioned this to me so nothing has come of it yet. She may still take it badly but we can deal with that if and when it comes. So, are we in agreement then?" The two Sai-jins nodded. "Good. I'll start getting things ready.

"Now, we need to talk about this... Buu creature." he said, straightening up. "It's power is exceptional..."

"I don't think he's dangerous." Gohan said. "Not really. I've gotten the impression he's like a child. Which means we can mold him the way we like. We befriend him and he'll join us, simple as that."

"And if he ever does become an issue I am stronger than him now." Kakkarotto said with a shrug. Vegeta merely grunted at the reminder of the other Sai-jins new gain in power. "But really, I'm with Gohan on this one. He's harmless, despite his power. Not smart enough to be a Master by any stretch of the immagination, but he'd make for an unstoppable ally."

"Alright then. I'll see what Gero has to say about him before I make a formal decision." Vegeta said. "But it sounds like he stays."

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Gero looked over the flow of data as it filled the screens before him. Videl was assisting him in his tests on Buu, tough the woman hadn't been overly fond of being near the creature at first. Now, however, she seemed to view him as simply an oversized infant and the two were getting along fine. Currently the creature was standing in a small room looking around in wonder as the scanner's lights passed over its body.

Videl walked up beside the doctor and looked at the monitor as well. "This is amazing." she said, reading some of the data. "His composition is..."

Gero nodded. "He's made of 70 oxygen, 20 nitrogen, 3 sodium, 2 sulfuric acid, and 5 calcium. And that's it. It really shouldn't be possible for him to be alive with these components. Especially at these proportions. He shouldn't even be solid, he's more gas than matter."

"Magic doesn't really follow the same rules, though." Videl said, reading another part of the screen. "And he's certianly got a lot of that. These readings are off the scales..."

"Indeed. Magic is what holds him together and gives him life. I think, perhaps, the only reason he has a body is because it's what he's used to. By these readings he doesn't even really need it. He could exist without it..."

"What I want to know is, is it possible for him to die? Or is that little one still out there somewhere?"

"Hard to say." Gero replied. "If something were to cause the cohesion of the magic that makes him to break down, concievably that would kill him. However, I don't know if the magic would re-condense given time enough or not. When parts of Buu are torn from the whole they hold a small magic charge but the core of his magic remains focused here..." he highlighted a small portion of the creature right in the center of its body.

"That's its core. In theory, it works like Cell's nucleus. So long as it remains intact he can reform. In Cell's case he has a nucleus in each individual cell of his body. For Buu, he only has the one core. However, that core is no larger than an atom and thus much harder to destroy. And, even if it is destroyed, I can't say for certain that there wouldn't be some residual energy that would allow it to come together again."

Videl sighed. "So it might still be alive?"

"It might, if the core can repair itself. In which case Buu is effectively immortal. Considering that neither Master Gohan or Master Kakkarotto could sense him anymore I'd assume his core was destroyed. Which means it's a 50/50 chance he's alive or dead." Gero shut down the scanners and then opened the door and let Buu out of the room. "Alright, we're done with the tests now." he said.

Buu walked out smiling. "That felt funny!" he laughed. "You should try it!"

The other two glanced at each other but before they could say anything the door to the lab opened and Gohan walked in. "Ah, Gohan, perfect timing." Gero said. "We just finished up our tests on Buu so we can get started on you now." He moved over to one of the metal beds in the room and patted it. "Lay down, I'm going to start off with some blood work. You had three attacks out there, including that odd power-restoring one?"

Gohan nodded and moved over to the table and laid down. As he did he looked over to Buu. "Hey, I never got the chance to ask you before. How did you kick that little freak out of my head?" he asked.

Buu blinked. "Buu no did. Other consciousness did!" he said. "You get knocked out and then he show up. Blew him away, boom! One shot!"

"What?" Gohan asked. "Other... wait, you mentioned that before. That I had two consciousnesses..."

Gero turned from the work he'd been doing and looked over to Gohan and Buu. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"When that little guy tried to absorb me." he explained. "We had to fight him off inside of my head. Before the battle Buu told me I had two consciousnesses. I never really found out what he meant by that." He turned and looked at Buu again. "You mean this other thing is the one that kicked the other Buu out?"

Buu nodded. "Yep!" He tilted his head a little and his face scrunched up oddly. It was hard for Videl not to laugh. "Buu think he know him somewhere. But I not sure. Little one did, though! Bad Buu knew him. Bad Buu was scared, I never seen Bad Buu scared before."

"Most intriguing." Gero said, rubbing his chin in thought. "You mean there's another being inside of Gohan?" Buu nodded in confirmation. "Well, that could explain a few things. Though it creates a lot more questions..."

"What, exactly, would it explain?" Gohan asked.

"Simple." replied the doctor. "It explains your attacks. At least, the source of them. This other entity is, most certainly, the cause. As to if the alterations to your DNA are being done on purpose or simply as a side-effect of this other presence being there I can't say for sure. Its presence may simply be causing your body to take on characteristics of its body. Or, it may be altering your DNA itself, to make itself a new body..."

"Terrific." Gohan muttered.

Gero didn't hear him, however. He'd turned his gaze back to Buu. "You say this other mind showed up after Gohan was knocked out?" Buu nodded again. "Hmmm. That would make sense. With him unconscious the other presence would have been able to exert more control than normal. It may have been unable to appear until Gohan was no longer cappable of restraining its presence. Undoubtedly it was also the source of the power you got back as well."

Gohan laid there thinkng for a moment. "Well, the way things were going..." he said slowly. "We wouldn't have lasted much longer. That power pretty much saved us."

"Yes. Self preservation. If you died then this other being would have likely perished as well. Not wanting that to happen it infused you with some of its energy. A rather unpleasant process..."

"You're telling me."

"Still." the doctor continued. "This begs the questions of who, what, how, when, and why? Who is it, what is it, when did it get there, and why is it there? Well, now that I know more about what is going on I may be able to find those answers."


	24. Causality

_Chapter Twenty-four - Causality_

Tao sat in silence and darkness. He could feel the humming of his ship's engine through the floor beneath him but the sound dampening effects of the room's material prevented any outside noise from disrupting him. His legs were crossed, his hands cupped in front of him on his lap, palms facing up, his eyes closed. Every so often a wisp of blue or white would trace over his body, the only light in the dark room.

Meditation training wasn't his preferred way to train but any real training while on the ship was pretty much impossible. Sure, there was a training area specifically made and intended for that. But the gravity generator had died years ago and the walls were starting to show the wear and tear of too many intense training sessions. _"Perhaps I should inquire about a new ship while on Xentron. Something with a bit more room now that I have a traveling companion."_

He released a sigh and opened his eyes. As he stood and stretched, working the kinks and cramps out of his stiff muscles, the lights in the room came on. Two hours of that at one time was enough for him. The gains in power were far too small to waste long on the training. Especially when there were other, more pressing matters, that needed attention. He moved over to the door and pulled his shirt down off the hook before putting it on and then left the small room that was barely more than a closet.

Closing the door behind him he made his way to the room where his supplies were stored. It was crammed full of assorted capsules in various display like cases. He looked over the supplies he had left and is his gaze passed over the food stores he frowned a bit. There was only one more capsule of food. Enough for a week, if rationed properly, but no more than that. It was still more than two weeks until he reached Xentron.

That detour to avoid pursuit by Frieza's patrols had extended his travel time and stretched his supplies to their limits. They could be stretched no further. It was clear some sort of intervention would be needed. Turning he made his way to the command area and took a seat in the command chair. Nail opened one eye for a moment to look at him and then closed it again, returning to his own meditation.

Tao looked over the radar and the Galactic Location Indictor to try and find a viable stop off to get some quick, temporary, supplies. There weren't any near-by worlds out here. This was the fringe of the galaxy. Star systems, and especially ones with worlds, were few and far between. Habitable worlds were even less common. But then he saw it, a ship. A cargo freighter, to be precise.

He scanned it for its ID Beacon and pulled up the data on it. It was the Talon, an Imperial Class Cargo Transport owned and operated by the Sai-jins. Currently on route to Baldia Station for a fuel re-supply before making a return to Saiya. The cargo manifest was mostly machine parts, though there were a few boxes of Xerudia on board. While there wasn't any food amongst the cargo Tao knew that no Empire ship traveled without several boxes of emergency combat rations.

While not the best tasting food in the universe it was food. A box of those would last him long enough to reach Xentron to stock up on more palatable food. "Nail, how do you feel about raiding an Imperial cargo ship?" he asked, glancing back at the Namek. "I don't have enough food left to reach Xentron."

"Are you sure we can take it?" asked the Namek, not opening his eyes.

Tao glanced at the ship data and the records for the crew. "Yes. That shouldn't be a problem, the captain's power is only just over 35,000." he said.

"Well, I'm always up for a chance to stretch my legs."

Tao nodded and laid in the new course. The ship shuddered slightly as some of the engines shut down and others boosted power so they could turn. As the Human leaned back in his seat the words "Estimated Time to Intercept: 2 Days" appeared on the screen.

XXX

Bulma's declaration a few days ago that the entire universe could be destroyed if things became too unbalanced, and that they might already be too unbalanced, had taken Marron a while to fully come to terms with. The destruction of the entire universe wasn't a particularly easy concept to wrap your mind around. Nor a pleasant one to consider. But the possibility, and hope that Bulma could find evidence to the contrary, had lead the blonde to helping the older woman with her equations as much as possible.

She still didn't fully grasp all of the advanced math used in the other woman's Universe Stability Equation, especially the sections of six dimensional math, but she had a much better understanding of it now. Enough that she could glance at certain parts of the equation and know what it was about, even if she couldn't always grasp the implications. Still, that moderate understanding had allowed her to help Bulma quite a bit over the last few days. Now, though, she was here for a different matter.

She reached up and knocked lightly on the door and got a "Come in!" from the woman inside so she opened the door and stepped in. Bulma had cleared all the chalk boards the other day, moving that work into her personal computer, and started on the next stage of her equations trying to predict what was coming. "Oh, Marron!" Bulma called happily when she saw her. She hurried over from the chalk board and gave her a quick hug. "You're leaving soon, aren't you?" she asked, pulling away.

"Yeah. In a few more hours." Marron replied. "I'm... kind of nervous, really."

"Understandable." Bulma said. "I don't know what they'll put you doing over there, the Gorneo facility is doing some pretty important research, but I'm sure you'll do fine. They wont put you into something they don't think you can handle."

"Yeah, I guess not." Marron agreed.

"So, how are you and Bra doing? Tell anyone else yet?" asked Bulma, grinning a little.

Marron blushed. "We're good." she said. "I'm going to go and... visit her, before I leave. We haven't said anything to anyone but you yet, though. 18 knows Bra was interested, since she talked to her before talking to me, but we've not talked to her since she left for Leberion. Bra will tell her when she gets back. We decided we'd wait a little while, see how things go first, before telling anyone else. Though knowing her she'll likely spill to Pan the next time they talk."

Bulma laughed and nodded. "She probably will. Bra's already got me helping her free up time to visit you out there, you know."

"Yeah, next month." Marron said. "That's when she's going to tell Master Vegeta about it, too." The blonde went silent for a moment as she thought. "There's... something I've been wondering for a while now."

"Oh?" asked Bulma.

Marron nodded. "Yeah. I... I was wondering how you and Master Vegeta got together, as well as Chi-Chi and Master Kakkarotto...."

"Ah." Bulma smiled a little and then motioned over to some chairs by the wall. The two of them walked over and sat down facing each other. The older woman remained quiet for a while, staring up at the ceiling in thought. "It's been a while since I thought about it." she said at last. "And Chi-Chi's story is a lot more... romantic than my own. Mine...." she shrugged.

"What happened?"

"Well, mine's a lot less complicated than Chi-Chi and Kakkarotto, so I may as well start with it. Let's see, Vegeta and I first met... actually, it wasn't long after the Empire first came to Earth. As you know I was born and raised on Earth, before the Empire found its way there. I'm even older than Kakkarotto. But, eventually, he ended up on Earth and started trying to take over the planet. My father and I moved most of our research into the deepest part of the West City labs so that it wouldn't get lost in all the fighting. We managed to keep Capsule Corp. alive and well during all of that, up to the point that the Empire found Earth and Kakkarotto again.

"Shortly after they located Kakkarotto Vegeta came, along with his men, to secure Earth as part of the Empire, and look into how strong Kakkarotto was, exactly. He'd gotten reports of his power and his ability to become a Super Sai-jin and wanted to see if he'd be a threat to them. Anyway, while he was on Earth he got wind of Capsule Corp. and its technology, which in some areas exceeded anything else in the galaxy. So, of course, he came to us in West City to talk with us about obtaining the technology. Dad was semi-retired at that point and I was the one pretty much running things." She paused and sighed. "To put it simply... Vegeta decided he didn't just want to take the capsule technology home with him."

Marron stared at Bulma in disbelief. "What, you mean he just kidnapped you or something?"

"No 'or something' about it." said Bulma. "He said, in no uncertain terms, that I was going with him. Or he'd blow up the office with everyone still inside."

"What!?"

"Yeah, he was a real charmer." Bulma said with a laugh. "Honestly, now that I look back on it, I think he just didn't know how to properly handle women. Especially independent ones like me. He was used to barking orders and having them obeyed before he was even finished speaking and used to women simply drooling at the mere sight of him. And, while I did think he was handsome, I also thought he was an obnoxious ass and made no attempt to hide my opinion of him while he was at Capsule Corp. His ultimatum obviously didn't improve my opinion of him any, nor did our trip back to Saiya on his ship."

"I had no idea...." Marron said softly. "That... must have been what Bra meant, then."

"Hm?"

"Oh, when she... when she was asking me to... be her Mate. She said not to say yes just because she was a Master and that Masters Kakkarotto and Gohan and her father may not care, but she wanted me to say yes because I wanted to say yes."

"Ah. Yeah, she knows how her father and I got together, and how Gohan and Videl got together, so she would say something like that."

Marron was interested in that last comment but there was still more she wanted to know on the current topic first. "So... how did you go from hating him and being kidnapped to married to him and, at least from what I can tell, in love with him?"

"Ah, that took a while." Bulma said. "I absolutely hated him for the first six months I was here. Luckily for both of us he was too busy during that time to really pay me much attention. If he'd had more free time and actually been able to try anything I'd have probably tried to castrate him and gotten myself killed. But then my father got ill and somehow Vegeta found out. I still don't know what made him do it but... he had my father brought to Saiya and placed under the care of the palace doctors, the best medical staff in the galaxy. That one simple act squashed most of my hate for him. I mean, he hadn't really done anything to me since taking me from the Earth, I'd been largely ignored by him but well taken care of by the staff, and then the help for my dad.

"There wasn't anything the doctors could do, though. On Earth he would have died within a few weeks. Here on Saiya he managed another two and a half good years. With my opinion of Vegeta as a bastard placed in serious jeopardy by him actually being _nice_ I started giving more attention to his looks and, from there, I don't know." she shrugged. "I'm not sure when, exactly, I fell in love with him, I just know that I did. I do still resent him on some level, the Earth was back at peace before he showed up, and this isn't exactly the life I'd planned out. But... I've got Trunks and Bra now, and Chi-Chi, 18, and Videl are better friends than I could have hoped for."

"Wow... I'd had no idea...." Marron said. "And Master Gohan and Mistress Videl were the same as you and Master Vegeta?" she asked.

"In a way." Bulma replied, nodding. "Gohan was still young at the time. Maybe nine or ten, I think? Anyway, Kakkarotto wanted him to visit Earth and the grave of his namesake there. On the trip they came across a small village that had managed to avoid any signs of the still on going fighting against the Empire. And in that village Gohan spied a girl about his own age, training, just beyond the houses, and was instantly captivated by her.

"Well, he kept sneaking off to the village to watch her train and asked around about the place. Turns out it was one of a handful of settlements that had formed that refused to allow any resistance to the Empire. They wanted to be left out of the violence so that their families could live in peace. During one of Gohan's secret visits to the village a band of raiders attacked and he watched as Videl ran off to help protect the village.

"He wanted to help but...." Bulma chuckled softly. "He was such a different person as a kid, he was too shy to go in, too worried she would see him. So he stayed back and watched them fight the raiders off until he saw her get hit in the head with a rock. That got him charging in there and he wiped out all of the raiders in only a few seconds. After some introductions were done he went to see how Videl was doing and learned that she was in bad shape, they didn't have the means to heal her.

"He asked about Regen Tanks but, well, you know there have never been any on Earth for public use. They're restricted to worlds classified as Stable and Earth was never Stable. So he picked her up and flew her, and her father, straight back to his and his father's ship and put her in a Regen Tank there. She was fine in just an hour or so and up walking again. And if he had been captivated by her she was... completely enamored with him.

"She'd never seen anyone who could use ki before so his feats were amazing to her. She talked her father into letting her leave with him and Kakkarotto. About six or seven years later he said he wanted her as his mate. She'd gotten over her awe and amazement and held him more as a close friend then a potential lover but... well, when a Master says you're their mate you're their mate. She didn't have much problem with it since she already cared so much about him anyway, but she was upset for a while just the same, as I'm sure you can imagine."

Marron nodded. She had a pretty good idea of how Videl would have likely felt from one of her momentary twinges of panic when Bra had first suggested they become mates. The short span of time when she wasn't entirely sure it was a request, not a demand. She shook her head to clear it again, there were still a few things she wanted to know before she left. "What about Mistress Chi-Chi and Master Kakkarotto, though? You said that Chi-Chi's story was more romantic?"

"Much more than mine, at least." said Bulma, laughing a little. "She told me once, many years ago, about how it happened. Everyone just assumes it was something like what happened with Vegeta and I, or Gohan and Videl. She and I don't keep secrets from each other, though, so I know." Bulma pursed her lips for a moment. "You can't tell anyone, though, got it?"

"Huh?"

"About how she and Kakkarotto got together. The only ones in the entire Empire who know anymore are him, her, and me."

"How come?"

"The only others who used to know where her father and a family friend, a martial arts master named Gohan." Marron's eyebrows went up at the name as Bulma continued. "Kakkarotto's never told anyone and Chi-Chi's only told me. It's not exactly something he goes around sharing and I'm the only one to ever ask her. And I don't really think he wants it getting around, either, since it involves a few... secrets."

"Secrets?" Marron asked. Now she was more than just a little curious. "Alright, I wont tell anyone."

Bulma nodded. "Ok. Well, remember how I said the Earth was back at peace before Vegeta showed up?"

Now Marron nodded.

"Well, it was because Kakkarotto disappeared. It's not something mentioned in the history books, but for a span of about six or seven years, after a failed attempt by the Earth forces to kill him, he just up and vanished."

"What?" Marron asked, blinking. "I've never heard this."

"Like I said, secrets." Bulma replied. "One of the more well known ones involved here, but a secret none the less. Only people born and raised on Earth know about it. From what you've said 18 managed to get you off of the Earth somehow when she gave you up so I'm not surprised you don't know. No one really knew what happened to him, and not even he knows the full details. But there was a battle with the Earth forces, he wiped them out, then he fought and killed Piccolo's father, and then a few days later he fought a Resistance member and then vanished, it was the last the general public heard from him for years.

"Something happened then, obviously, but he doesn't know what it was, all he knows is that one second he's transforming and intending to kill a member of the Resistance who just demolished his castle and actually managed to hurt him, and the next he was laying on a soft bed in the small bedroom of a small house. No idea what happened in between at all. And when he woke up in that bed he had no idea of anything. No idea who he was or what he was or where he was. None of it."

"Amnesia?" Marron asked, surprised.

Bulma nodded. "Yep. Complete and total. One day Chi-Chi was out by a river near her home washing clothes and she heard a noise behind some bushes that sounded like a groan of pain so she checked it out and found a naked and badly injured man laying half in the water. She pulled him out, carried him home, and with help from her father and Gohan, who had recently moved to live with them because of his own poor health, nursed him back to health. They all recognized him but it was against the nature of any of them to let someone die or hurt the injured and weak. And then when he came around a couple weeks later he couldn't remember who he was and he acted nothing like that Kakkarotto that had been terrorizing the world.

"They didn't tell him what they knew, for obvious reasons, but offered to let him live with them and gave him the name Goku. Apparently Gohan trained him to control and use his power again, as he'd lost the ability to do so along with his memories, and the two of them grew close, Kakkarotto actually taking to calling him grandfather. And he and Chi-Chi fell in love, both of them. Chi-Chi found out he really did love her when, a few years after she'd found him half drowned, Gohan died from illness and the death triggered the return of his memories. But instead of leaving and resuming his conquest of the Earth he elected to stay with her instead. They were married a few months later and then a year or so after that Gohan was born. I think he would have stayed hidden in those woods his entire life with just her and Gohan if the Empire hadn't found him."

"Wow, I had no idea...." Marron said. Then she smiled. "That is more romantic." she agreed. "So, was this martial artist guy the one Gohan was named after, then? The guy who's grave his father took him to see?"

Bulma nodded. "Yeah. Kakkarotto insisted on it, one of the few things he's never let Chi-Chi budge him on. Anyway, when the Empire came about four years later he simply made as though he'd grown bored fighting the Humans, since they weren't really any match for him, and figured everyone else had forgotten about him, though he almost came to blows with Vegeta over Chi-Chi and Gohan."

"How come?"

"You've seen that Vegeta's not got much of an opinion of Humans. His opinion of Hybrids isn't much better, either. You've noticed, haven't you, that none of the Hybrids have Sai-jin names?"

"Yeah, but I never gave it much thought."

"Well, it's a law Vegeta made." Bulma said. "Only full blood Sai-jins are allowed to carry a Sai-jin name. So Vegeta left the naming of Trunks and Bra up to me. Kakkarotto let Chi-Chi name Goten and Gohan and Videl came up with a name together for Pan. Even with the power that Hybrids can have Vegeta still sees them as less than Sai-jin." she shrugged. "He didn't much like the idea of a Sai-jin with a non Sai-jin mate, or of a Hybrid Sai-jin child."

"But... didn't you say you first met him shortly after he came to Earth?"

Bulma smiled. "Caught that, did you? Well, his opinion had changed during his short exposure to Gohan. Gohan was already a Super Sai-jin, like his father, and he was stronger than him as well." Bulma shrugged. "Both were still a lot weaker than Vegeta at the time so he didn't give them much thought, but Gohan's strength showed that half Human children could still be powerful. Which is what stopped Kakkarotto and him from getting into a fight since Vegeta lost some of his 'the Sai-jin race must stay pure' attitude."

Marron nodded. "Yeah, that sounds like a Sai-jin." she said. "I've not met many... er, before recently, but I've dealt with a few over the years. They're... unique, I've found. It felt like they were all trying to be everything I'd heard they were."

Bulma chuckled. "Yes, one of the few races who embrace their stereotyping and wear it like a badge of honor."

"There's something I don't get, though." Marron said. "If Master Kakkarotto has such a strong link to Earth, even taking his son to see the grave of a Human...."

"Why'd he let Vegeta let Frieza blow it up?" Bulma finished the question. Marron nodded. The older woman sighed. "That's both an easy and a hard question to answer." she said. "He's always made sure not to show any real link with the Earth because such emotions are usually seen as weakness. When he first joined the Masters there were a lot of Sai-jins who didn't like the way he was with Chi-Chi as it was, so he just sort of became stand offish on matters of the Earth.

"And then there's the fact that, while he's the strongest, Vegeta's still the one in charge. As the top two strongest Masters he and Gohan should have a higher standing in matters of state than others do, it's something that's been dictated since the formation of the Masters before Kakkarotto even joined them, so they should actually have the biggest say. But neither of them wants to rule and so they deferred to Vegeta which gives him the title and the top authority. So even if Kakkarotto had said anything it's unlikely Vegeta would have changed his mind."

"Oh. It's a lot more complicated around here than I thought."

"Oh, you don't know the half of it, dear." Bulma said, laughing. "But you'll learn quickly. We're all connected around here in ways you couldn't believe so it leads to an interesting dynamic. Kakkarotto being the most complicated one of them all because he's got the most confusing links to people."

The blonde raised an eyebrow in interest. "How so?"

Bulma smiled. "Well, let's see. He's stronger than Vegeta, the heir to the Sai-jin Royal Family which has, for generations, been deemed the greatest of all Sai-jins. This innately puts him on Vegeta's bad side. I think all that stopped him from fighting Kakkarotto for the right to rule the Sai-jins, when he realized the other was nearing his strength and likely to surpass him, was the possible backlash it could have caused thanks to Bardock's standing with the Sai-jin people. That, and possibly the fact that Gohan was already stronger than him, even if not by much, and going after Kakkarotto would have had Gohan step in. Vegeta couldn't have taken both of them at once and he knew it.

"Then there's Dr. Gero who is none too pleased with him for making his life miserable for years on Earth by destroying his creations and blowing up his labs and screwing up his research. Piccolo still holds animosity towards him thanks to the fact that he retains all the memories of his father and thusly remembers being killed by Kakkarotto back on Earth. He's got strong bonds with his family, stronger than any other Sai-jin I've ever heard of, and he and Videl have gotten along well since he first met her, she looks at him as almost a second father as he was the one who raised her in space and showed her how to fight with ki and so on. And then there's me. He listens to me and confides in me more than Vegeta does." she finished.

Marron's eyes widened throughout all of Bulma's speech but got their widest at the end. "Why?"

"Because we go back. Way back to before the rest of the Earth had ever even heard of him. I was the first Human he ever talked to, ever interacted with."

"Wait, what?" Marron asked. "How did you meet Master Kakkarotto?"

"Ah, now that's a tale." Bulma answered with a smile. "I was... wow, I think was about ten or so. Yeah, I was ten so he would have been six at the time. Anyway, the Red Ribbon Army had recently found a way to track down the Dragonballs and...."

"Dragonballs?"

"Oh, sorry, I guess you wouldn't know about them. Only the leaders of the Earth Resistance and the Masters do. They're... complicated. The short answer is that they are seven balls with stars in them and, when gathered, you can call forth a Dragon capable of granting a single wish. Anyway, the Red Ribbon Army had found a way to detect and track them and were out to collect them all. They hit West City and the Capsule Corp. main building because we had one, even though we didn't know it.

"Well, in all the chaos I found out what they were up to. They wanted the wish for world domination. Being an idealistic ten year old I wanted to stop them and thought my brains would be more than enough to do so. So I went down into my father's lab and twenty hours later I had my first Dragon Radar and I could locate and track the Dragonballs with it. There were three in one place and the rest were scattered so I figured those three were the ones they had.

"I decided the best way to stop them was to get the ones they didn't have yet and hide them somehow, so I set out for one far away from the three they already had. As I followed it I realized it was moving and when I found it I realized why. Kakkarotto had it. It was the Four Star Ball and he'd found it with his scouter by accident and decided that the odd energy coming from it had to mean something, so he kept it.

"I explained about the Red Ribbon Army wanting them and he decided it would be good training. That was why he was on Earth, he said, he'd been sent to a distant far away world to make him tougher. He was the weakest Sai-jin in a generation, much weaker than anyone else born the same time as him, and it was like a crash course in survival training. I wasn't sure what to make of it all, but at ten years old and tracking down magical balls I figured anything was possible." She smiled a little and laughed.

"Anyway, we set out for the Dragonballs and got to know each other pretty well while finding them and taking out Red Ribbon Army units along the way." She sighed. "Unfortunately he wasn't exactly... subdued in his fighting. He tended to wipe out large sections of land when he fought, which wasn't much issue in unpopulated areas but he didn't hold back any in the cities either. The destruction of North City wasn't him beginning his attacks on the world like the history records say, it was him wiping out a contingent of Red Ribbon soldiers to claim a Dragonball, and taking half of the city out with them.

"I realized, by the time we'd gotten three of them, that he was probably even more dangerous than they were. They were Human and, while they were powerful, they weren't invincible. And as far as I could tell, he was. But at the same time he was fragile. We would talk about this and that as we traveled and he was curious about the Earth and about finding strong people to fight because the soldiers weren't much to him. Somewhere along the way I got to talking about my father and how he'd once been a pretty strong guy.

"Kakkarotto asked what happened to him and I said that he 'just got old' and said that old people aren't as strong as young people. He took that to heart. To him, being strong was everything, nothing else mattered. The idea that he could lose all of the power he had and was yet to get just because he got older scared him. One day, the day before we hit the Red Ribbon main base, he asked me 'What is old? How old could you get before you were old?' and I realized later what he was asking, but at the time I answered like a normal ten year old. I told him that anything over twenty was old.

"The next day we hit the base. I stayed back as usual but I wanted to be there when he got all of the Dragonballs. I wanted to make sure he didn't wish for anything like what they wanted. When he finally got them all and he summoned the Dragon I was ready to step-in, to wish for something random. But he beat me to the wish, it came out of him so fast I barely understood the words, but I still remember them. 'I don't want to get old and lose my power. I wish to stop aging when I turn 20.' By the time it registered what he'd wished for the Dragon had already left."

"Wow. So that's how he became immortal?"

Bulma shook her head. "Not immortal. He can die, all of the Masters can die, as you saw with Goten. But once he turned twenty he stopped getting older. Vegeta... he learned about it shortly after coming to Earth and, as he already had access to Capsule Corp., it was easy for him to get a Dragon Radar and track them down. Only, he wanted more than what Kakkarotto had, he wanted true immortality.

"The other Masters of the time, the Cold Family, they got wind of it and Cold went to Earth to make sure Vegeta didn't double cross them. He wasn't trusted nearly as much as his father had been before him. But it didn't work out like either side wanted. Cold made sure that Vegeta didn't make a wish for just himself, cut him off before he could and wished for immortality for all of the Masters. Shenron wasn't able to grant it, though. Not enough power. So they settled on eternal youth as well."

"I had... no idea...."

Bulma shrugged. "No one outside of the Masters does." she said. "Word got out when soldiers talked but it was distorted by spreading through the ranks first. Hence why some of the public thinks the Masters are somehow immortal. There are those who don't believe it at all, even with how young Vegeta and Kakkarotto still look, but some do."

"So, why did Kakkarotto start trying to take over the Earth?"

"His battles against the Red Ribbon Army earned him the dislike of the world at large so they started to attack him and he retaliated back. Eventually he decided the only way he'd be able to train in peace, since no one was anywhere near strong enough interest him as an opponent, would be to put an end to all resistance by taking over the planet. But his heart was never fully in it, he didn't really want to rule, so he didn't try as hard as he could have."

"And when he finally found the chance to train in peace, following his amnesia, he stayed with it...."

"Yep." Bulma said with a nod. "Now, I think you should be going. You've been here for two hours now and you still need to see Bra before you leave."

Marron looked up at a nearby clock and her eyes widened. "I hadn't realized I'd been here for so long!" she cried, jumping to her feet. "You're right, I've got to go, we leave in another two hours and I still have things to ready. See you later, Bulma."

The older woman smiled and laughed. "See you later, Marron. And tell my daughter I need to talk to her!" she called as the blonde hurried from the room. As the door closed behind her Bulma turned her attention back toward her chalk boards and her new predictive model which, still, didn't want to work properly. She had yet to figure out what it was the was screwing up the flow. The math was sound, everywhere she looked, but at various and, apparently, random points the universe's history took a sudden, sharp, and wholly unexpected (and unexplainable) turn. But now a new idea hit her, one born from the conversation she'd just had with Marron. One that nearly made her smack herself for missing it in the first place.

_Shenron._

The Dragonballs had vanished years ago, without a trace, but a wish was the only way she could think of for the Humans to have escaped from the Earth as they had. The Eternal Dragon was an outside force, not a part of the universe itself, and thus something that she could not map, could not plot, and could not compensate for in her predictive model. He was also a source of interference for the universe itself. As an outside force not bound by the universe he had no restrictions, no limitations, to what he could do. At least, none imposed by the universe. His actions could defy the Natural Order, defy the universe and its precarious balancing act.

And, apparently, that's what it had been doing for centuries. Parunga as well, most likely. They could both influence the universe in ways that no other being could. Now that she felt she understood why her model was off she could adjust. It would be impossible for her to just simply map the effects of the two Dragons, though. She understood, now, that Shenron had sent the Humans away from Earth but she didn't know where too, an important factor in figuring out what they might be doing next. With the Dragons working on a universal scale now, not just a planetary one, where every wish is felt, to some degree, by the entire universe, their effects on the tipping balance would be even greater.

She knew she had to find some way of compensating for them, of figuring out how things were going to play out. Otherwise her model would be worthless and she was becoming more and more convinced, every day, that the universe was beginning to pull itself apart from the imbalance. Her SyncScope spoke volumes to that effect. The red 63 of just a few days ago was now a red 68. Things were continuing to worsen, and worsen badly, even without any obvious causes.

XXX

Marron had rushed from talking to Bulma to Bra's room. She hadn't meant to sit and talk with the older woman for so long, she'd wanted to spend more time with Bra before she left. Still, she got to the room in just under ten minutes and Bra had been waiting for her. Now she lay in Bra's bed, beside the other girl, and staring up at the ceiling as her breath slowly returned to normal. It had not been the intention of either of them, upon arranging this last meeting, to end up as they had. But one thing had lead to another and now both were catching their breath while covered only in sweat.

"That was...." Marron said slowly, as her breath finally came back enough for words.

"Mmmmmm." was all Bra could manage.

Marron smiled as she turned her head to gaze at her. "Yes, 'Mmmmmm' works nicely."

Bra smiled back and then suddenly moved in and kissed her, not for the first time in the last hour. "I wasn't referring to what we did." she said, breaking the kiss. "I was referring to you."

Marron felt her face go hot as she blushed and she quickly turned her face away. "I... I don't... I mean... I'm...." She felt stupid, being embarrassed by that after everything they'd just done, but she couldn't deny that she was.

Bra couldn't help it and she started to laugh as she reached a hand out and brushed a stray strand of Marron's blonde hair off her face and back behind her ear. "Sorry, I didn't mean to embarrass you like that." she said. "I just... It's my mood."

Marron turned her head back to look at Bra again and smiled. "Yeah, I know what you mean." She closed her eyes and sighed as she stretched, arching and cracking her back in the process. "Kais, I wish I could stay here." she mumbled. "But I've still got to pack yet and I need to meet up with your brother in...." she glanced over at the clock on the stand by Bra's bed. "Forty-nine minutes."

"It wont kill him to wait a few minutes." Bra said, resting her head on Marron's shoulder. "You can stay here a little longer."

"Tempting. Very tempting. But I don't want to be rushing around while I get ready, don't want to accidentally forget something...." She sat up as she spoke and Bra let out a sigh of disappointment as she sat up as well. The blonde took a look around the room and her shoulder's sagged. "Think you could help me locate my clothes?" she asked. "I haven't got a clue where any of them ended up...."

Bra laughed again. "Neither do I. Come on, let's see if we can find them."

Bra's room wasn't exactly what one would expect from royalty, though it was definitely royal. A royal mess. Clothes were scattered all over the floor and furniture as were books and papers and a few food wrappers. It took the two of them nearly five minutes to locate Marron's shirt but there was still no trace of any of her other clothes, even after another ten minutes of hunting.

"Oh, I am going to be so late!" Marron groaned as she checked under the teen's bed for the sixth time.

"Relax, there's time still. I'll help you pack, it'll go faster." Bra said. "But I think we should give up on the rest of your clothes. It's a lost cause at this point, they've been swallowed by my room."

"Well, I can't exactly go back to my room without at least some pants." the blonde pointed out.

"You could use one of my body suits." suggested Bra, as Marron's head came back out from under the bed. "One size fits all, you know. I'd offer you some pants but I don't think they'd fit you, your hips are bigger than mine."

"You mean my butt is bigger than yours." Marron said, frowning a little. "But thanks for saying it nicely."

Bra laughed and shook her head. "I think it's a nice bu...."

"Well, I guess the body suit will have to do." Marron interupted, worried that if she let the other keep talking her face would become permanently red. "I hate those things, though. Whoever invented them had to have been male."

Bra laughed again as she got up and went to her closet to fish out a body suit, the only type of clothing she had that was still in the closet. "Can't argue with that." she said. "Top half is way too tight and bottom half is way too loose." She pulled out one of her blue body suits and tossed it over to the other girl who quickly pulled it on and then took a couple more minutes to adjust it enough to be comfortable. Meanwhile Bra pulled on some of her clothes as well.

"Ready?" Marron asked, once she decided the suit was as comfortable as it was going to get.

"Ready." Bra agreed. She lead the blonde girl out of her room and started through the halls for the room Marron still shared with 18. They saw very few people along the way and those they did see didn't pay any attention to them anyway. "So, be sure to give my brother a hard time in my stead while he's there, kay?" she said as they reached their destination.

"I don't think I'm quite up to that just yet." Marron laughed.

"Coward." Bra teased as they begin to quickly pack Marron's things. It only took the two of them about twenty minutes to get all of her stuff packed away into two Capsules which the blonde then pocketed. The two then made their way from the room and to the hangar where the saucer ship to Gorneo waited. They stopped just beyond the hangar, where they'd be less likely to be spotted by the crowds. "Take care of yourself, you hear?"

"Yes ma'am." Marron replied, saluting and laughing.

Bra pretended to scowl at her for a moment and then gave the blonde a good-bye kiss that was probably longer than was wise, in public, but she didn't really care at the moment. "Well, I guess this is it...." she said, breaking the kiss.

Marron sighed and nodded. "Yeah. But only for a month."

"Right, just a month.... One kiss isn't enough for a month." Bra said before leaning in and kissing her again. As she broke the kiss she smirked and moved her head over so her mouth was near Marron's ear. "Oh, and I lied. I found your underwear, I'm wearing them now." she said, barely above a whisper, and then she walked passed her and into the hangar where she could see her brother standing at the opposite end.

Marron just stood there, eyes wide and unblinking, for what felt like only a moment, her face slowly getting redder and redder. So it came as a shock to her when she felt someone poking her head and turned to find Trunks only a few inches from her face, his finger pointing at her and still poking her. "Hey!" she cried.

XXX

Trunks stood back from the activity and fray of the busy hangar with his father. Castle staff were making last minute pre-boarding preparations on the saucer ship while the fifty man crew of the ship began preflight procedures. Once all that was finished the thousand or so people milling about off in the passenger loading zone would be allowed to board, all of them heading out for the Gorneo project as new or replacement staff.

The Hybrid wasn't entirely sure why his father had called him down to the hangar, though. Vegeta had said nothing in the last fifteen minutes since their arrival at the hangar, just stood there, watching the crews. Trunks had gotten his orders to go out to Gorneo to oversee things there for a month, in the hope his presence might get things back on track, just the other day. As he already had all of his orders he couldn't think of what his father might have to say to him about the assignment. Then again, Marron was going out there, too....

Finally, the Prince could stand the silent waiting no more. "What is it you wanted, father?" he asked, glancing over to him.

"I have special orders for you." Vegeta said after a long moment. "Pertaining to the matter you brought to me a few days ago."

Trunks closed his eyes and sighed. _"Sorry Bra, looks like dad's acting faster than I expected, and faster than you."_ he thought. He'd noticed Marron and his sister spending a little more time together lately than they had been, but the blonde had spent most of her free time with Bulma, and Bra had yet to mention any forming relationship between her and the Human. Trunks took it all to mean that his sister had not yet acted, or if she had that Marron had rejected her. Though the latter seemed unlikely as Bra had been in a cheery mood as of late.

"Understood." he said, opening his eyes again. "What are my orders?"

"You will travel to Gorneo on the ship," Vegeta began. "For a Special Imperial Inspection of the project as already established. However, once on Gorneo you are to stage an attack by Slug and Turles on the facility there."

"And the workers and ship crew?" he asked, as many of said workers began to board the ship, the preflight procedures complete.

"Collateral damage." replied his father. "For this cover to be believed no one on the planet can survive. Only you, I, Gohan, and Kakkarotto know of this assignment."

"Not informing Gero?" Trunks asked, a bit surprised. Typically operations like this had the doctor's involvement somewhere. Usually in blocking transmissions from the target location from reaching anyone. And they usually stored the data of the mission, the orders and the results, inside a secure database not connected to the network and only accessible from Gero's lab.

"No." said Vegeta. "18 has full access to Gero's labs and knows the code for the secure server access. There is the possibility that she would check the records there after getting the news."

Trunks pursed his lips, his father had a point. 18 had little trust for most of the Masters. She really only trusted him, her brother, Bra, Pan, and... Goten. Considering the fairly recent orders to destroy the Earth and her original concern over Marron's safety there was a strong chance the Cyborg would check the covert ops records. "Orders received and understood." he said.

"I'll leave you to it, then." said Vegeta as he turned and made his way from the hangar bay.

Trunks watched him leave before turning back to the room again. As he did he saw Marron coming down the hall toward the hangar bay, surprisingly in a body suit instead of her normal clothes, and Bra right beside her. As he watched them near he thought of another good reason not to log this particular mission, even in Gero's archives. The resulting backlash from Bra would be... unpleasant if she knew of what was soon to happen. It would be one thing for a covert strike force to carry out these orders and something else entirely for her brother to do it. And then Bra and Marron did something that made him freeze.

They'd almost reached the hangar, stopped, said a few words, and then kissed. Not just a quick kiss but a long and lasting one. He glanced back the way his father had gone but he was already out of sight. Trunks looked back and saw them talking again but couldn't hear what they were saying over the din of the hangar. Then, suddenly, Bra moved in for another kiss. When the two split apart Marron seemed to be... somewhat frozen. She didn't seem to be moving much more than was required to breathe. Trunks closed his eyes and sighed. This was an unexpected and rather unwelcome turn, though he knew his father wouldn't change the orders this late so there was no reason to bring it up with him. Opening his eyes again he saw a grinning Bra walking toward him.

"I guess you kind of saw that, huh?" she asked. "You weren't supposed to find out until next month."

"Rather hard to miss." he said, smirking. "So, you did get up the courage then. I'm impressed."

Bra shrugged. "It was the entire reason I spared with you, after all."

"So... since then?" he asked, raising his eyebrows in shock. He expected this to have been a much newer development.

"Yep." she replied. "I brought it up as soon as we got back to her room and she said yes."

"And you didn't say anything?"

Bra shrugged again. "We told mom." she said. "But we've both decided to keep things quite for now, just in case. She's not entirely sure of herself yet, but we'll let dad know next month." She paused then and turned to look at Trunks. "And I expect you to keep your hands to yourself during the trip, got it?"

Trunks put his hands up and waved him before him as though in surrender. "Absolutely." he said. "I don't need both 18 _and_ you giving me a hard time. I will be on my best behavior."

"You better because if I hear one bad thing when she calls me you'll be in even worse shape than when Videl was through with you, got it?"

He grinned at her and laughed. Despite the deathly serious tone to her voice and the scowl she wore she was also grinning from ear to ear. "I've not seen you this happy in a while."

"I don't think I've ever felt this happy." she said. "Not even... not even with Goten. I guess... maybe mom was right about him and I, maybe it was just a crush, maybe this is what it's like to actually be in love."

Trunks closed his eyes and sighed. "Well, I'm sure I could skew my inspection report just enough to get you posted to Gorneo as... incentive to the workers if you want."

Bra smiled. "Maybe." she said. "But then, I am a Princess after all. Who says I need a posting? I've already asked mom to help me clear out my schedule for a little vacation time. It wont be for two or three weeks, since I'm trying to squeeze out about a three month vacation here, but that's ok. It'll give Marron time to get settled in on Gorneo before I pop up." She stopped then and tilted her head a little. Marron was still standing where she'd left her, still staring dazedly at the wall. "Hmm, maybe I shouldn't have said anything. I think I might have broke her...."

"What'd you say?" her brother asked, laughing.

"Nothing you want to hear about."

Trunks laughed again. If it was something he didn't want to know about then it had to be bad. No wonder the poor girl was frozen stiff.

"Thanks again, Trunks." Bra said after a moment. "For not saying anything to dad. And now that she's heading off world, somewhere were there aren't many high powers to contend with, there's very little chance of a repeat of what happened. By the time he finds out... who knows?" she shrugged, smiling, and then left the same way their father had gone.

Trunks watched her until she disappeared around a corner and then sighed again and looked back over toward Marron. _"The Kais must hate me. If either Bra or 18 find out about this...."_ he thought glumly. _"Castration, with a dull and rusty knife, that'll probably the result... if I'm lucky."_ With a sigh he turned back toward Marron and saw her still standing where Bra had left her, frozen. With a shake of his head he started across the hangar for her.

He reached her a few moments later and waved his hand in front of her face. "Saiya to Marron, come in Marron." he said, cocking an eyebrow. She'd been like this for nearly eight minutes now, it had to be some kind of record. But she showed no reaction to his hand so he started poking her in the head. It always worked with 18. Sure enough, she turned after a moment.

"Hey!" she suddenly cried, the glazed look to her eyes vanishing.

"Hey yourself." he said, still poking her. "You back down to Saiya, yet?"

"Wha-what?"

He finally stopped his poking as her hands came up and started to swat at his finger. "You've not moved at all for that last few minutes, and you didn't even react to the poking for about a minute, either." he said. "Head off in the clouds?"

"Oh... I... just... just thinking...." she stammered as she tried not to blush and give away the secret yet.

"Nervous about Gorneo?" Trunks asked. Marron missed the grin as she'd turned her face away and by the time she looked back his face was clear again.

Marron mentally sighed in relief and nodded her head. "Yeah."

Trunks shrugged. "Don't worry, you'll do fine. You managed to come up with that antidote pretty quick, I'm sure there wont be anything out on Gorneo you can't handle."

"I hope so...." she said, turning to look toward the saucer ship they'd be taking. As she did she noticed how busy the area was. "How big is the ship crew?" she asked.

"Only about fifty." Trunks replied. Then, seeing the confusion on her face, he continued. "Oh, most of these aren't crew members. They're transfers. Either coming from other projects and going out to Gorneo or going back out from leave."

"Oh. Now I feel stupid, I'd thought I was the only one going out there."

"No, we've always got a steady flow of traffic out to Installation Worlds like Gorneo." Trunks explained. "At least one saucer a week leaves for each world, and they all come through here."

"All of them? But... that's a lot of worlds and a lot of ships."

"Yeah, around two hundred ships a day, give or take fifty. But father's made Saiya the central hub for all Installation World traffic. It's so we can keep an eye on personnel shifts and leaves and cargo transports and stuff. Didn't used to be like this but one of the project heads thought it'd be a good idea to use inter-project transports to smuggle stuff without paying the required taxes or getting clearance for some of the restricted goods he was shipping about. If it had been just the taxes father probably wouldn't have cared much. Taxes are more Gero and Cold's area of the government than his. But the guy was transporting some banned technologies too, not to mention Sai-jin women."

"Sai-jin... women?" Marron asked, confused.

Trunks shrugged. "Slave market." he said. "Slave trading isn't illegal but it's not exactly considered proper business. Mostly occurs out in the fringes where no one else gives a damn. Father didn't much like them using our ships to conduct their business in the heart of the galaxy without his knowledge, especially when the majority of the slaves on the transports were Sai-jin women. It was pretty stupid, really. If the guy had just filed for the right permits and paid the needed fees there wouldn't have been any problems. He'd have made a little less cash but he'd still have his head."

Marron stared after Trunks as the Hybrid walked off toward the saucer ship. _"Definitely __**not**__ ready to give him a hard time in your place, Bra. Don't know if I ever will be."_ she thought, before following after him. They'd be launching within the next thirty minutes.

XXX

"Master Vegeta!" a deep voice called from behind. The Sai-jin came to a stop and turned to see who it was that had called him. It was an alien of some race he wasn't able to place, not that he could place most of the various races that lived and worked in the palace, and he was wearing one of the rather _ugly_ orange and puke green armors of CommsOfficers.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"We just received a message from the South Galaxy, from Inferna's people. Apparently she and Master Cold, and both of their ships, have vanished."

"Vanished?"

"Yes sir." the man said. "According to them they entered a Worm Hole near the north edge of the Eye of the Universe but never came back out." he explained. "They've been scanning for any trace of them for the last several days with no luck and have just contacted us to see if we had any information on their location."

Vegeta sighed and rubbed his forehead. It never seemed to end, one string of problems after another, half the time before the last problem was even fully dealt with. Though he couldn't see how he was supposed to know where they were at, the two had been heading to the South Galaxy, after all. They should be closer to that region of space than to the North Galaxy. A missing Master was definitely a problem, though. Especially when that Master was Cold. Cold was something of an anchor for his sons, without him Frieza and Cooler would be far more difficult to deal with. He was the only leveled headed and, in Vegeta's opinion, intelligent member of his family.

"Alright, lets head to the CommCenter and see if we can figure out what's going on." he muttered.


	25. Leberion

_Chapter Twenty-five - Leberion_

An annoying beeping sound stirred 18 back to consciousness. It took a moment for the source of the beeping, the reason, and her current location, to register in her mind. Once it did she came to full alert again and turned off the noise before bringing up the data display. Planet Leberion lay dead ahead, in another fifteen minutes she'd be entering the atmosphere and beginning her descent. In twenty-five she'd be on the surface. She scanned over the power readings being displayed on the screen not really expecting much. The threat here wasn't organic, the powers of the planet's robots wouldn't register on the scanners. Sure enough the highest reading to appear on the screen was only 222.

As she gazed at that reading she couldn't help but feel sorry for these people. Their greatest fighter, the most powerful person on the planet and seventeen points over the second strongest, was only a measly twenty points stronger than Master Kakkarotto had been when he was born and Kakkarotto had been the weakest living Sai-jin back then. It illustrated just how little chance the average person really had against the Masters and she found herself thinking about what could have happened to her if she'd not defected while still Human, had not become one of Dr. Gero's projects. Dead, with the rest of those on Earth, for a month now. She really wouldn't have been much different than these people. She never would have been as strong as the Masters, never would have had a chance to pull herself up from under the Empire's feet, even if she was still under its thumb.

Though she knew that the relative freedom she enjoyed had its limits. Even these days when the Empire called her a Master, and she was largely treated as such by the others, there were still invisible chains. She knew she wasn't _truly_ a Master. Yes, it was official, more so even than Videl's supposed position as a Master, but it had never actually felt _real._ The lack of realism to the title had been one of the main reasons she'd been so concerned about her daughter's safety. She had become a Master as the end of her progression through the ranks of the Empire's forces and because it had only made sense to make her and her brother, two of the Empire's strongest soldiers, into Masters.

Despite the title, however, she still carried all of the failsafes that Gero had originally installed. A tracking device to follow her movements with, the power cut-off systems that would disable her infinite energy generator reducing her power to that of the average Human, the mind inhibitor function of the nano-bots in her system that could knock her out and trap her in a coma like state indefinitely, and a high yield explosive that could be remote detonated and would blow her apart from the inside, and kill almost anyone else within two hundred feet of her when it went off. Those four failsafes, developed by Gero to protect himself and the other Masters even before he himself had risen to their ranks, had been left in place despite her and her brother gaining the title of Master themselves. Proof to her that they weren't really Masters, just soldiers with a little more power, and tighter leashes.

She closed her eyes and sighed as she felt the Space Pod begin to vibrate heavily. She'd just entered the upper atmosphere of Leberion. Touch down was only ten minutes away now. Pushing her thoughts from her mind she focused on the job at hand and called up further data on the planet and her current location. According to the computer she was right on target, she'd come down about three miles outside of Defiance, the capital city of Leberion, so renamed just four years ago when it became the center of the Leberion resistance.

Defiance was the tightest gathering of people on the planet, over half the population was gathered together there, some seventy thousand individuals, the rest scattered about randomly. The planet only had a population of about one hundred and twenty thousand in all. Best as she could tell from the intelligence on the planet only those in Defiance were part of the resistance, part of those building the 'Battle Droids', the rest were just trying to make the best of their lives. She didn't want to drag in anyone she didn't have to so with luck this entire mission could be contained to just Defiance.

Closing her eyes again she braced for the coming landing, hands gripping tight to the armrests in the pod. "Impact in ten..." began a computerized voice inside the pod. "Nine... eight... seven... six... five... four... three... two...." One was drowned out by the bone jarring and thundering force of the impact with the planet's surface. The force of the hit slammed her jaws together and jammed her knee against the door.

"Par for the course for a pod landing." she muttered, rubbing her knee with one hand while activating the door release with the other. Once the door was fully open she pulled herself out of her pod, adjusted her purple and back battle armor, and then gazed around her. "What... the... hell?" she breathed. The data she'd gone over, after leaving Saiya, had claimed Leberion was a world of abundant life, covered in thick forests with only a few cities here and there. A mostly tropical world where the coldest it ever got at the poles was a few degrees above freezing. What she saw around her was a barren snow covered wasteland, and her breath misting in front of her face.

She looked up and saw thick black clouds filling the sky, threatening to unleash a massive blizzard. But, as she lowered her gaze, she saw that the black above her was not clouds. She could see it rising out of towering structures within the city before her. It was smoke. Massive amounts of thick, black, sun light choking smoke. She'd never seen a world so badly polluted before, especially in such a short time. The data she'd read was only a little over a year old. How could they have possibly spewed this much smoke into the air so fast? More importantly, why would they have done so?

Lifting into the air she started for the city. Her answers to the clouds lay there, inside one of the buildings beneath the towering smoke stacks. She'd find out what, exactly, was going on before she set out on her original mission. There was a chance that the resistance here was already gone, given the state of the world. As she neared the city she saw that it wasn't in much better shape than the lands around it. A lot of the windows were blown out, some had been covered in plastic, others boarded up, but most left open, a few buildings had been destroyed, though she couldn't tell how, and a hover car sat at the corner of an intersection, burning.

"What is going on?" she wondered, coming to a stop and gazing about. Down the street to her right she could see more destroyed buildings as well as pot holes in the road where the snow dipped lower than elsewhere. There was also a large tanker trucker, the tanker blown apart into two. Looking at the shape of the tearing along the metal she could only think of one thing that could have caused that damage, an energy blast. But why would anyone here shoot an energy blast at a tanker? What's more, where were all the resistance members at?

Her scanners were detecting powers all through the buildings around her but so far none had come out to try and oppose her. In fact, many had gone back further, moving away from the windows. _"It's like a war zone here."_ she mused to herself. _"What in the hell happened? The Empire hasn't sent anyone here in ten years, so this isn't something we did."_ She turned from the ruined truck and looked toward one of the towering smoke stacks. Now that she was inside the city she could tell that the stack reached a good hundred feet into the sky and that there were five to a building. The buildings with the stacks were the only ones that looked to have been taken care of. In fact, the one she could see was in pristine condition.

She was just about to start toward it when her scanners picked up a number of sudden powers flaring up all around her. In a span of three seconds she went from having about seven dozen powers in the 2 to 8 range around her to having another hundred powers, in the 140 to 18 range, surrounding her. _"The hell? Ki Suppression? Here?"_ she thought, turning her head to see if she could catch a glimpse of the sources of the ki. _"Wait, no, it can't be ki suppression, the powers didn't increase, they just appeared...."_

And then there were sparks of blue all around her and a barrage of energy blasts was surging toward her. She dodged around them easily enough and, as she did, brought up a hand and quickly generated a golden energy disc. "Destructo Disc!" she cried, pitching her arm forward and flinging the disc toward the powers on her right. The barrage of attacks stopped as soon as she loosed her attack and the powers began to scatter. With a flick of her wrist the disc twisted in the air and shifted direction as well following the nearest of the powers. A second later seven of them had dropped down to zero. And then, suddenly, they all blinked out of existence again, just as suddenly as they'd appeared.

_"That's definitely __**not**__ suppression."_ she thought, frowning. _"It's instant, suppression doesn't instantly remove a power. So what the hell is it?"_ She shook her head and turned her attention back to the smoke stacked building, more convinced now that she needed the answers it held before going any further in her mission. Moving quickly she covered the remaining two hundred yards to the building in only a few seconds and then pulled to a stop again. Down below turrets turned and pointed in her direction and she scowled as light began to build up in their barrels for a moment before a new barrage of energy was surging toward her.

She dodged these attacks as easy as the last and took out the four barrels aimed her way with a ki blast each. That done she floated down lower and looked along the wall for a door. Not seeing anything, however, she fired a blast at the wall and made her own. Landing she stepped inside and looked around. The building was clearly a factory for mass producing the world's Battle Droids. While the building looked large from the outside, at least a five hundred square feet and four floors, it was even larger inside. From the walk way she was on she had a good view of the entire expanse and figured it had to go at least two hundred feet underground.

There were four large assembly lines, two at the left end and two more on the right end, with a multitude of workers rushing around trying to escape. The robots being produced would not have passed as any sort of living creature, like 16 could. They looked like big, round, metals balls with a strip of black around their center and hose like arms and legs. The feet were just half spheres and the end of their arms ended in what looked more like the claws of a crane than hands. The design didn't match anything on record which meant they were likely a new model.

There was no telling how high over the 500,000 mark these ones could be, though she wasn't too worried about them. Despite the considerable improvement made in the ten years since the first model six months wasn't a whole lot of time. She doubted even these models would be able to hurt her. Perhaps an untransformed Goten, if he were still around, maybe even an untransformed Bra, but she doubted they'd be much over that yet. Her concern and her haste had been for the future. Given another five or ten years she wouldn't be surprised if Leberion were producing robots on par with 19 at the least, possibly even as strong as 16.

"Sorry." she said, raising an arm and pointing her palm toward one of the assembly lines. She knew these people were likely just trying to protect their world and their families, just like the resistance fighters she'd known on Earth, but she was the same. She no longer knew the reason she'd defected to the Masters in the first place and no longer cared. Ever since Marron had been born, from the moment she'd first held her, everything she'd done had been done to protect her. She had created her shell and the cold exterior the world saw, pushed her sorrow and her pity aside, and fought tooth and nail to get into a position where she could keep her daughter safe. Part of that safety involved missions such as these and, for that reason alone, she was able to do them.

Bright purple energy gathered in front of her palm and then with a crack it shot forward, slammed into the right hand assembly, and exploded blowing away the majority of the equipment. Though she could have blasted the entire building into dust with one shot she'd held back, she still needed her answers. As she turned to blast the next one she saw that only a few workers were left, heading toward a door at the bottom level along the opposite wall from where she was. She aimed her blast that way instead, hitting the wall just over the door, and caved in the exit. Then she turned and took out the remaining three assemblies before moving from the walk on which she stood and descending down to the bottom level where the last of the workers were banging on the rubble trying to move it aside.

The natives looked almost Human. Same height, same build, same body design, and so on. The differences lay in the multi-faceted insectoid eyes, the purple, blue, and red skin colorations, the lack of hair, the single short fat black horn atop their heads, and the oversized and pointed ears. There were only seven workers still left, three of them red skinned, two blue, and two purple. The two purple ones and one of the blue were female, the others were male, and all seven had powers of 6. 18 gazed at each of them as they turned from the rubble to stare, terrified, at her.

_"Show time."_ she thought, her face turning into a scowl. "Alright, I need information." she said as her feet touched the floor. "What's happened to the city outside?" The seven workers didn't answer, merely continued to stare at her and tremble. _"Too terrified to speak, terrific."_ she thought, her scowl deepening. Unfortunately there was only one easy way to get them to start talking. She raised a hand and pointed a finger at one of the older looking red ones, she avoided killing women, children, and the young in general when and where ever possible, and fired a blast of purple energy through his head. The man was thrown back into the wall and then collapsed to the ground, dead. One of the purple women screamed and ducked behind one of the remaining red men.

"Next time I pick two targets." she said. "Now, what happened here?"

"V-Valor took over." the blue female said, eyes wide in fright. "H-him and his pe-people and their n-new Battle Droid designs o-overwhelmed Gallant's f-forces."

"Valor? Gallant?" 18 asked.

The blue woman nodded as she swallowed a lump in her throat. "Ga-Gallant used to lead th-the resistance forces." she said. "He c-created the Battle Droids, the old models. Valor d-didn't like how he ran th-things and f-formed another group and made their o-own, much st-stronger Battle Droids and attacked."

18 sighed and rubbed her forehead. A civil war within the rebel faction, terrific. "How long ago?" she asked.

"T-ten months." replied the woman.

"How long was the fighting?"

"O-one day."

_"One day?"_ she thought. _"How could this Valor guy take over in a single day?"_ She glanced around at the ruins of the plant wondering if this Valor's design might be vastly superior to the best that Gallant had developed. "How strong are Valor's Battle Droids?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"Stronger than you." said the purple woman not currently hiding, an edge of defiance to her voice.

"Unlikely." replied 18. _"But unfortunately, not impossible."_ she added mentally before addressing the workers again. "How strong?"

"W-we do not kn-know." the blue woman, again. "But th-they wiped out all of Ga-Gallant's Battle Droids w-without a single loss."

18 closed her eyes and sighed again. Maybe she should have brought someone along with her, 16 or Gero, instead of coming on her own. She still had doubts that any one of these new designs could pose a threat to her on its own but she was concerned there might be enough of them to overwhelm even her. "And the smoke?" she asked at last. "Why is there so much of it?"

"Valor ordered m-mass production of both hi-his strongest designs. Non stop production to b-build an army."

"To attack the Empire with?" asked 18, opening her eyes again. The blue woman nodded in reply. "Non stop since he took over ten months ago?" Another nodded reply. "Well isn't that perfect." she muttered. "I don't even know if there's a damned Empire left to protect and these guys have an army." She shook her head and turned around back toward the hole she'd made before. "I'd leave the city if I were you." she said to them as she lifted into the air. She stopped a moment later as a metal pipe suddenly slammed into the back of her head. The impact hadn't hurt, she'd barely felt it, but the pipe had bent.

She turned and looked behind her and saw the purple skinned woman who'd spoken earlier, claimed the Battle Droids were stronger than her, staring at the bent pipe and then looking up at 18 in fear. She dropped the pipe suddenly, as though it might bite her, then turned and started running toward the far end of the building. The Cyborg just floated there and watched her for a moment, debating if she should let her go. But after a few seconds she decided that it probably wouldn't be a good idea to do so. If the woman was willing to go so far as to try and kill her herself she wouldn't likely give up on the resistance even after it had wiped it out. So she raised a hand above her head and formed another energy disc.

"Destructo Disc!" she called, pitching it forward. The running woman turned at the sound of 18's voice, saw the spinning disc hurtling toward her, and then tripped over her own feet and fell. It only took the woman a moment to get back onto her feet again but just as she stood the disc reached her and sliced through her neck before fading. The woman's headless body stumbled a few more steps and then collapsed, dark green blood spilling out over the floor, her head having been thrown several feet forward when it was severed, where it landed with a dull thud, rolled and bounced several more feet, and then finally came to a stop.

"Serenity!" the blue woman that had given 18 her answers cried, taking off at a run for the fallen woman.

18 just closed her eyes, turned, and floated back up to and out of the hole she'd made before. She knew she should probably blast the entire factory apart, leaving behind salvagable debris was probably a bad idea, but she couldn't work up the will to do it. So instead she turned from it toward the next closest one to her. But as she prepared to head for it she spotted a glint of light, followed by several more, as something came flying up toward her. It only took a moment to recognize about half of the machines as the round things she'd seen in the now destroyed factory.

The other half or so of the machines she saw were of a different design. The woman before had mentioned that they were mass producing two designs, apparently she was now facing off against both of them. This second design was very similar to the first, the primary exception being that the body was more like that of a person, though somewhat like a rounded triangle. The legs were still hose like and the feet still half spheres but the arms were solid and jointed like a person would have and the hands looked more like actual hands. The black strips were gone as well and instead they had a large red circle of glass near the top of their bodies on what looked vaguely like a head.

Far as she could see there were about five hundred of each design floating there, not pleasant numbers when she knew these things were capable of tearing through an army of machines in the 500,000 range of power without a problem. Considering the civil war had lasted only a day 18 figured her earlier assessment that these things would only be a threat to an untransformed Goten or Bra was off. It was likely they could be a serious threat even to an untransformed Pan, possibly even Vegeta, though she doubted much higher than that.

Not that it was much consolation in her current situation. A thousand opponents, capable of giving even just an untransformed Vegeta a work out one on one, would be difficult, even for her. She brought her arm up again and created another disc. Just as she was about to launch her attack a dozen of the non round ones lunged at her, much faster than she'd expected. Her attack faded away as she quickly went on the defensive, dodging around punches, kicks, and energy blasts.

_"I don't believe this!"_ she thought in shock as she slipped another punch and smashed her fist into one of their red circles, shattering it and causing the robot to fall from the sky. _"Their speed and strength... these things have be around at least half of my power!"_ She dodged another series of punches and kicks as more of the robots began to charge in, both of this variety and the round kind. She quickly discovered that the round ones were considerably weaker than the non round ones, and in turn her. But their numbers, and fighting along side the stronger versions, more than made up for it. _"I need to fall back."_ she realized as a metal fist slammed into her back. She'd hardly felt it but if enough of them hit her enough times she'd start to feel it.

She started to turn back to the direction of her pod but there was a sudden loud and thunderous crack, her eyes bulged, and then they closed and she began to fall from the sky. Two of the round robots shot in and caught her by the arms, pulling her back up. They held her there, unconscious, for a moment, and then turned toward another factory, near the middle of the city, and flew off with her between them.

XXX

"There it is." said Nail, watching the main monitor in the control room of Tao's ship. The monitor was currently displaying the close-range space radar display and a transponder had just appeared on the screen, near the top right corner.

"Distance?" asked Tao from where he sat at the controls.

"Five thousand miles and closing, though not very quickly." replied the Namek. "It's going away from us but we're moving faster."

"Empire transports tend to be old and slow." said the Human. "Inefficient as it is the Empire uses too much money on Gero's research and on squashing Resistance uprisings to properly maintain any craft not owned by a Master." Tao reached out and flicked a few switches on his console, turned a knob, and then depressed two blue buttons and a purple one. "Unfortunately my resources are rather limited and my ship probably equally as old as the freighter. I've already got the engines maxed out and we've still only got 70% output." He scowled at his readings. 70% output and dropping, by about a hundredth of a percent every ten to twelve seconds. He'd not pushed the engine of his ship for a few years, it was in need of quite a few repairs beyond his own technical know how.

"What's the angle?" he asked, turning his focus back to the controls. Normal space flight could be automated easy enough but coming up along side another ship and docking while still in motion was precision work and required a living pilot.

"X: -058, Y: +124, Z: +013." Nail replied. He felt the floor shudder slightly under his feet as the ship changed course slightly. "Distance now four thousand eight hundred miles." He watched the monitor as the ship's computer tracked the transponder, the cargo ship not altering its course despite their approach. "I figured they'd have seen us by now." he said after a moment. "They've made no move to evade us."

"They may not be paying attention to their space radar." replied Tao. "And as we are suppressed their scouters wouldn't alert them to our approach. Though it's possible they have noticed us and are either ignoring us, since there aren't any notable powers on here, or they've gone to internal alert and are waiting for us to board, merely playing at ignorance. We should be close enough for a visual now."

Nail nodded and switched over the monitor view from the radar to the external cameras. They were just under forty-five hundred miles away now and the cargo ship looked like little more than a speck of light. The Namek set the view to maximum magnification and the cargo transport filled the screen. "Our best option for docking would be the rear top cargo hold." he said after a moment. "Use the landing gear to clamp us down to the hull so they can't shake us off. It looks like there's an air lock for the cargo hold as well, we can just blast through it after we secure the docking bridge." Suddenly a box appeared in the bottom right corner of the screen, filled with a series of numbers. "Tao, I thought you said the ship's captain was only just over 35,000?" Nail asked, glancing back.

"According to the registry, he is. Why?"

"The ship's scanners just picked up two powers well over that. One at about 48,000 and the other around 52,000."

"Interesting, crews are never stronger than their captain. Not on Sai-jin owned and operated ships, at least." said Tao thoughtfully. "Probably just a personnel transfer. Doesn't matter anyway, they're still not a match for us."

Nail nodded as he watched the distance read out continue to tick down. "Four thousand miles." he announced a few moments later. "We should catch up to them in about ten minutes."

"Understood, preparing magnetic docking clamps and booting up the docking bridge computer." replied Tao. "Head down to the bottom hatch and get ready. Once we're secure I'll open the air lock door over here. Blast your way in and clear out any guards that come along and wait for me, I should only be a few moments."

"Right." Nail said with a nod as he made his way out of the room.


	26. Raid

_Chapter Twenty-six - Raid_

It was near impossible to tell how long they'd been there. All of the clocks on both ships and on all of their scouters read different times. Some said they'd been on this unusual world for six days, others said they had been here only six hours, some said six weeks, a few six months, at least two of them read six years, and three or four of them were going backwards. The only thing any of them had in common was six so Cold was quite certain that however long they had been here there was a six involved.

The clocks being off wouldn't have been a problem if there had been night on the planet but that was an impossibility, there were far too many stars encircling their massive world. Cold had had his ship go into orbit and run a full scan on their location. There were exactly four hundred and sixteen stars orbiting the world they were on spaced out in such a way that, no matter where you were on the planet, there would be up to twenty of them in the sky, and never any less than three. What's more, they didn't exactly orbit at a steady speed.

Just a few hours ago, as far as he was able to discern, they had all gathered outside and watched as the suns sped through sky so fast they'd seemed blurs. It hadn't lasted long but it had been a spectacular sight, if a bit disorienting. It had also raised concerns about instability in where ever they were but Inferna's techs said that all of their readings were fine. There wasn't even a pocket of space out there weak enough to try and make another Worm Hole to escape through. They, and his own techs, also said that this world was the only thing worth exploring.

The most distant of the suns was about twelve light years away and beyond that was something Inferna's people called a 'Hyper Particle Field'. Apparently the same thing that comprised the walls of a Worm Hole. Contact with such a field would atomize pretty much everything. So this place was just this. This world and its four hundred and sixteen suns. Not that there wasn't plenty to explore on just this world. The palace they'd emerged near alone would take decades to fully explore, at the least, and scans indicated hundreds of other structures, though none nearly as massive, spread out over the five million or so miles that the ships could scan of the world.

Five million square miles made up very very little of this world, a world nearly four light years in diameter. Exploring all of it would certainly take hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years. Time Cold was more than willing to devote as the world had quickly captivated him. Its nature, its origins, the purpose of the buildings, and their creators. In large part this was due to the writing that filled the walls of the first chamber, the room they'd first entered. The people they had studying the walls were still going over them carefully, comparing notes and ideas with each other, trying to properly translate everything there.

Meanwhile he and Inferna, with Cold's three man elite team as escorts and guards, had taken to exploring what they could of the rest of the place. Directly behind the massive statue of Souzousha they had found a door that lead into a circular hall. The curvature of the hall was so small that it was only discernable if you looked a few hundred feet ahead of where you stood. The pair had decided to turn right and start in that direction figuring, eventually, it would lead back anyway since it _was_ circular.

They'd had to walk nearly five hundred feet before they'd reached another doorway. It had been on the right, what Cold considered the outside wall, and had lead to a huge spiral staircase made of gold that rose up and descended down. They elected to pass it up for now, if they turned at every stairwell they might never find another room, or their way back. Pressing on another hundred feet through the cold marble hall they found another door, this one on the left, or inside, wall and leading into another room.

The sight had brought both Cold and Inferna up short as they looked in the doorway. The room was about eight hundred feet by eight hundred feet by three hundred feet high and right in the center, slowly rotating, were the four galaxies, each one at least a hundred feet across. The two had made their way carefully inside the room to examine these representations of the galaxies and to try and determine what was creating them. But no matter where they walked or floated the spinning galaxies remained unbroken.

Most interesting of all about this room had not been the galaxies themselves, though they had been impressive and, far as Cold could tell, represented in scale. What had been most interesting had been what floated in the exact center where the Eye of the Universe was. A single, solitary, planet, around which orbited four hundred and sixteen stars. Unmistakably the world on which they currently found themselves. And it looked to the two of them as though the four galaxies were slowly orbiting around this central world. Inferna had also pointed out that one star lined up perfectly with the center of each galaxy, even as they orbited around the central planet.

The 'Galaxy Room' had taken up a lot of their time for a while, making several visits to it to examine the galaxies, the central world, and to try and determine if any other secrets resided there. At last deciding that nothing was hidden in the room waiting to be found, or if there were that they would not be finding it any time soon, the two had decided to press on and gone further down the hall leaving the Galaxy Room behind to be examined more closely by their scientists after the translation of the writing in the Grand Hall was further along.

The next door was over a thousand feet from the last and it, too, was on the inside wall. This room was not nearly as massive as the Grand Hall or Galaxy Room, only about two hundred and fifty feet long, a hundred feet wide, and at least four hundred feet tall. But it held its own wonders that had made Cold pull some of his men off the writing to investigate. The room had appeared empty at first glance, though with moving ladders along all four wall. Further examination, however, had revealed objects resting in small nooks set into the walls. Small red stones about the size of a golf ball, evenly spaced six inches apart from each other, stretched from floor to ceiling and corner to corner, with only a few empty nooks here and there.

It was this room that they were currently exploring, ten of Cold's men spread about with various devices scanning the objects and making sure not to touch any of the red spheres. Upon having first found the room Inferna had attempted to pick up one of the orbs but there had been a sudden burst of energy that had flung her back and up into the air. She had slammed into the opposite wall, hitting several more of the things, and subsequently been flung forward and up higher, smashing her head against the ceiling. The blow had knocked her out and Cold had only just caught her before she hit the ground.

"A power source, perhaps?" she had suggested, after coming too. "Maybe even what is currently powering the building."

"Possible." Cold said. "That could explain the charge that hit you. Though I'm not convinced of that. I considered it but the number of these spheres... I would expect the palace's power source to be a more singular item."

"Hmmm, I can see your point." conceded Inferna. "However, as we don't know how these things are made we can't say for certain that they _can_ be made bigger."

"True. There's always that possibility. And thus needing to link up a few thousand in order to run the entire building. This is still assuming they are a power source, though. They could be any number of things. Perhaps some form of weapon, the discharge that hit you was quite powerful. It is possible that they've merely become faulty and unstable after all these years. Or perhaps they're something we could never begin to guess." Which was why the scientists were there, studying them and analyzing them and pouring over them with all of their beeping, flashing, and whirring gadgets.

"Anyway, there's no telling how long this may take." said cold. "Perhaps we should move on. Three rooms explored and three interesting discoveries made, I'm anxious to see what lay in the next room."

Inferna nodded and started walking over to him but stopped after only a few steps. One of the scientists had let out a startled gasp and jumped backward. The orb he'd been examining had popped out of the wall and was now floating in the air, moving slowly foward and up. The tech who had jumped back quickly scurried away from the floating orb and all attention was turned toward it as it began to glow. There was a crackling noise a moment later, like the static of a speaker, and then the sphere pulsed red brightly.

When the glare died those in the room found themselves looking at a figure made of red light. It looked like a man, about seven foot tall and had a tail almost as long as he was tall that started off thick at the base, almost two feet across, and tapered off slowly. His feet were large and bird like, his legs twice the length of normal resulting in a much shorter torso, and yet his arms still barely reached to his waist. His head was long, the face completely flat with flat round eyes, a flat nose that was more just slits in his head than a nose, and a mouth that was barely discernable as he appeared to have no lips. He also had four horns, two small ones on his forehead, not more than three inches long, and two more from the sides of his head that hooked up about a foot.

"How long have we been here?" an old and weary sounding voice asked. "I often find myself pondering this, late in the day as our work winds down. I say late in the day because it is convenient and because old habits die hard. There are no days here, no years, no minutes. How could there be in a place where there is no _time_? However long we have been here we have learned to work some of the instruments here, some of the facilities, but not all. And many are still dangerous to go near. Just this morning five of our men vanished when a strange red light swept over the room we had entered to explore.

"Some of us think they may still be alive out there but none of us are willing to go looking. This place and its wonders have taught us that not all is as it seems, even in the most obvious of moments. I believe, in time, our lost brothers will find us again, should they still be alive. And should they come back I shall have to ask them how long they were gone. Of course, they will not truly know, but it will be interesting to compare our estimates. Already we have begun to notice large discrepancies between time passage among the furthest parts of our camp."

The old voice sighed and the figure of light moved its short arms from behind its back and raised them to massage its temples with its three over long and thin fingers. "When we stumbled on this world, however long ago that was, we had no idea what we were in for. The bizarre workings of time here have been but our smallest problem. When we first arrived we thought the world empty and all its peoples gone. But sometime afterward we tripped some... mechanism, alerting those who live here of our presence. Our numbers dropped from five thousand to only two thousand in the ensuing onslaught. No one among us could harm these things, they were far more powerful than anything we had ever before seen.

"Those of us who survived only managed so because we escaped from the palace. Whatever the creatures were it seems they can not go beyond its walls as they chased us no further. And once those inside were all dead they retreated again. Someone else alerted them to us more recently and our numbers reduced further, now there are but three hundred of us left. And that is why I have decided to use the recording device we found to make one of these Record Orbs, as my men have called them, to preserve all that we found and learned for anyone else who comes after us, so that our time here, our efforts, our lives and those of our fallen friends, will not have been a waste.

"This orb holds all of the data we have gathered. Perhaps you, who ever you are to have found it, will be able to make use of it. The other orbs in this room I do not know, they were here when we arrived and we have not yet been able to get near them. I am sure there is a treasure trove of data stored in this room, a wealth of knowledge beyond mortal comprehension. I hope you will pick up where we left off and continue to unravel the mysteries of this world. If so, I wish you luck in your work, and shall pray for your safety for this is a most dangerous place." And with that the light figure vanished, the glow of the orb faded, and then it fell to the floor with a soft tink.

There was silence for several moments as both cold and Inferna stared at the orb. At last Cold spoke again. "Fyuu, pull half of my men off the walls in the Grand Hall." he ordered as he picked up the fallen orb. "Bring them in here and have them go over every inch of this room, and find out how to extract the information from this. I want all of the data on this thing copied into our computers as soon as possible."

"At once, sir."

ZZZ

It had been a week, now, since Eve had found Bardock's scouter recording from Tinto in Cooler's network. Each of them had spent the intervening time differently. Xeno had gone over his own intended report to Master Vegeta multiple times, adjusting bits here and there as he went. He had found it... difficult to find feasible explanations for how he had determined the pod to be Bardock's and how he had determined the occupant to be Brolly. The files and resource he'd used had all been sealed, restricted, and he had no desire to tell the Empire that he'd had someone hack into them. Not just to protect his own skin but Eve's as well.

Currently, his plan was to say that one of his team had merely recognized Brolly, despite the age difference, from history books while the pod identification had been done via an old computer database they had lying around, used since the pod had been old itself. So long as no one looked too deeply into the latter point it would be fine. Old databases like that did still exist out there off the network with old information still on them. And Brolly _was_ recognized by appearance, they'd just happened to have an image of his six year old self on hand.

Eve had spent the week digging through more secured computers, hacking into more restricted areas, and attempting to dig up more information. She wasn't having much luck, however. She'd found a handful of classified files that had interested her and the others, most of them pertaining old projects of Dr. Gero's, but had not found any further data on Tinto. At least, nothing as big as before. She had found confirmation that Master Vegeta had been on Tinto, despite historical records saying otherwise, but they all had surmised as much from the scouter recording.

Everfrost had spent most of the time simply lounging around and watching TV with Rain. Neither of them had any real work to do on the ship and Eve had gotten tired of them looking over her shoulder and suggesting files and folders to check. Rain's sister, however, had spent a good part of the past week out of the cargo hold they were staying in. After Storm's fourth departure in two days the others had gotten curious as to what was up and it was Rain who had explained. When Storm had gone hunting for a Sai-jin for information she had found one that had, for lack of a better term, caught her interest. Thus Storm had been spending as much time as possible away from the cargo hold and with said Sai-jin.

However all of them, even Rain, had been caught off guard when, on the third day, after her second trip out of the hold that day, Storm had come back accompanied by the Sai-jin in question. Rain groaned and rolled her eyes as Storm had introduced them all to her. There had been some confusion on the parts of Xeno and Everfrost when Storm had referred to the Sai-jin, Zukina, as her mate, largely due to the near constant scowling and glaring the Sai-jin had been giving the Wathor the entire time. It had been Eve who had spotted their looks of confusion and explained, having dealt with Wathor's and their customs before.

Wathor mating customs were not like those of most other races. Wathor culture was quite similar to Sai-jin culture in a lot of respects, including their love of power, fighting, and control. However, unlike with Sai-jins, this love of power, fighting, and control stretched into mating as well. When a Wathor found someone they wanted to take as a mate they simply did so, assuming they were strong enough to force the other individual to cooperate at least. Effectively speaking, Wathor mates were more like slaves. Which was why Zukina had been scowling then, and had spent the next four days doing so almost constantly.

Xeno hadn't been overly thrilled after being filled in. More for the fact he was worried it would strain relations with the ship's captain and cause them problems than anything else. Storm had explained that it wouldn't, and if it did then the captain would have more trouble than them anyway. Wathor mating customs had been dealt with nearly twelve years ago by the Empire when they had passed a law allowing Wathor's to take mates from other races, including Sai-jins, and even from among Imperial soldiers, so long as they filled out all the required forms, which she had done. So the captain could complain all he wanted, the Masters didn't care, and if he caused problems he'd be violating Imperial law.

It hadn't really cheered Xeno up much (or Zukina, for that matter) but it made the subject a moot point. And he figured that was why Storm had waited until the paper work had cleared before informing them of what she'd done. It was over and done with now, too late to stop it. So Xeno, Eve, and Everfrost had tried to integrate the Sai-jin into their group, staring by filling her in on why they were there in the first place, as well as why they'd needed the translation that had landed her in her current situation, though that had waited until just yesterday, when her scowling stopped looking quite as murderous as it had been upon first arriving in the hold.

Zukina had been shocked, more than any of them, to learn that Brolly was still alive. Hearing the scouter recording had actually cleared the scowl off her face completely. She still glared at Storm, and even Rain on occasion since the two were identical save for their eye colors, but managed to get along amicably well with the other three after that, and joined in on their various debates about what they'd learned while adding in her own Sai-jin perspective. It was one of those debates they were currently in the middle of.

"I just can't see a Sai-jin turning their back on their race in favor of a Changeling." Zukina said. "Working along side a Namek is one thing, but working _for_ a Changeling? It would never happen."

"So how do you explain the scouter recording?" asked Everfrost. "We heard Turles tell Bardock he'd done just that."

"Maybe. But maybe that was for Master Cooler's benefit." replied the Sai-jin.

"What, you think Turles was playing Master Cooler?" asked Eve from within her tub of ice water.

"Exactly. Using him for his own purposes and playing along as having joined him in... whatever was going on."

"It's possible." conceded Xeno. "And possible he's still doing so with Slug. We can't be certain that Turles isn't working for the Masters, or at least someone in the Masters, and just spying on Slug. We really don't have enough information."

"Yeah, but getting into stuff like that really complicates things." said Eve. "I mean, you could what if all kinds of things. Like, what if Master Cooler thinks Turles is spying on Slug for him but is actually spying on both of them for Master Vegeta? Or what if Turles is pretending to spy on Master Cooler and Slug for Master Vegeta, and pretending to spy on Slug for Master Cooler, but actually working with the Namek? Or maybe he's not working with or for any of them and working entirely on his own, pretending to spy on everyone, for his own ends?"

"That sounds more Sai-jin, at least." said Zukina. She reached up and rubbed her temples. "I still can't believe this, though. A conspiracy like this in the Masters? I just find it hard to swallow that it's been over looked by all of them. Or that Master Vegeta would have any need to work with Cooler for anyth...." Zukina's sentence was cut off suddenly by a thundering bang and the violent shaking of the ship. "What the hell was that?" she cried, picking herself up off the floor.

"A power level just flared up above us." said Rain, looking up at the ceiling and frowning. "32,000 and it wasn't there until a quarter of a second ago."

"And there's a second one, 35,000." added Storm. "Almost the same level as the Captain."

Rain nodded. "And clearly not their maximums." she said. "I could accept one power being evenly rounded without it being a suppressed level, but two?"

"Agreed." said Storm. "What do you think, should we check it out? Even if those are their maximums the two of them will tear right through the crew."

Rain sighed. "I suppose we should." she said. "I'd rather not let them rampage around and damage the engines, I don't want be stuck out here waiting for some damned rescue ship for the next three months."

ZZZ

Nail came to a stop at the bottom hatch and waited, eyes on the air lock lights. The red light was currently on and he knew once the docking bridge had been secured in place and filled with the proper amounts of air that it would switch green and the hatch would open. That would be his cue to make his way into the bridge and blast open the hatch of the other ship. It was only a few minutes wait before he felt the minor shudder of the docking clamps locking onto the larger ship's hall, then the red light blinked out and the green came on. With a hiss the hatch swung up revealing the thirty foot long tube leading down to the other ship.

As soon as he dropped through the hatch the Namek felt the sudden and rather odd sensation of true weightlessness. Even during flight on a planet you always had the pull of gravity holding you down. But he was now outside of either ship, the artificial gravity field of a ship always cut off right at the outer edge to conserve power which left the docking bridge weightless. Pushing aside the odd sensation he flew, more than floated, down to the hatch of the cargo ship. Placing his hands against the hatch he fired off four strong blasts of energy, the first one barely denting the door, the second and third causing it to begin to cave, and then the fourth blasting it from its hinges.

As the hatch tore free the motor system for the door shorted and exploded along the right hand side, the explosion blasting out of the hull of the ship. Cursing under his breath Nail exhaled quickly and then launched into the cargo ship even as he felt the air being sucked out. Moving quickly he aimed an arm at the hole in the hull and began firing a steady, low power, stream of energy along its edges. It took a moment and then the wall began to glow bright red. With the metal now almost molten the Namek lowered his arm, moved over to one of the interior walls, ripped off a panel from it, and then slammed it over the hole where it was instantly fused against the near molten metal.

"Impressive patchwork." Tao said as he floated into the ship beside Nail. "Though I doubt it will hold for too long, a single panel like that is not designed to deal with the pressure or temperature differences between the inside and outside of a ship."

"It'll hold long enough for us to get out." said Nail. "With the hatch blown they'll have to seal this area when we leave anyway, to prevent all the air from being sucked out."

"True. Well, let's get started with our search. The rations should be stored in one of the holds." Nail nodded and the two looked around them. The crates in the hold they were currently in had barely moved during the depressurization of the room. One or two had toppled off of tall stacks and broken open spilling machine parts but the majority were still neatly stacked. Considering that all of the boxes here looked the same they both found it unlikely any of them held the rations they were after so they turned toward the nearest door, a large hangar style door, and started for it.

They were still about fifty feet away when they whined and then began to slide open. In seconds a flood of armored soldiers, all of them with spiky black hair, began to spill into the room. The two of them came to a stop as they watched the Sai-jins surround them, a good forty or fifty of them in all. Tao figured a ship this size would have a total guard size of about seventy. _"The rest are probably securing the bridge and any Class A cargo."_ Tao thought, eyeing up the soldiers. On a ship with captain with a power of around 35,000 he didn't much expect any of the soldiers in the room to be over the 30,000 mark. 28,000 at most, probably, and that's about what the strongest of them felt like.

Their numbers were such that they could have been a problem for Nail on his own, even at full power. But at his own full power forty or fifty people in the 28,000 area weren't a real threat. And then two more people floated into the room, clearly not Sai-jin with their orange skin and white hair. They were also the two powers Nail had noted earlier, the ones stronger than the ship's captain. The two of them hung back by the doors, however, and merely watched him and Nail. It was one of the surrounding Sai-jins, the strongest of them and likely the head of Ship Security, who spoke.

"This is an Imperial ship," he began. He and his men all had their arms up, pointed at Nail and Tao, and energy blasts at the ready. "You are in violation of Imperial law and are here-by ordered to surrender and identify yourselves immediately."

"I would recommend lowering your arms and letting us pass." Tao said, placing his arms behind his back. "We don't want trouble. Just let us go about our business and we'll be on our way in no time, and you'll live longer. I'll give you to the count of three. One."

The Sai-jin who had spoken snorted. "You're out numbered." he said. "The two of you may be stronger than us but with this many of us you don't stand a chance."

"Two." Tao said, as though the Sai-jin had not spoken. The Sai-jins around him and Nail fidgeted a bit, including the head of security, but none of them lowered their arms or let their charged ki blasts fade. "Three." Suddenly the two of them vanished and there was a loud crack as they appeared again. Tao had his knee buried into the stomach of the head of security whose eyes bulged for a moment before closing as he passed out. Meanwhile Nail had appeared behind two others and slammed his elbows back into their heads causing them to fall to the floor unconscious. The remaining soldiers hesitated for only a fraction of a second and then turned on the one nearest them and launched their attacks. The Human and the Namek both vanished at the same time, the ki blasts speeding off to slam into the walls and the crates.

"Holy shit." Rain whispered as her scouter flared and beeped, the sisters had chosen to remain behind and observe things when they'd arrived at the cargo hold, wanting to get a better idea of how strong and how skilled their intruders were. The two powers had spiked up to fifty thousand on their initial assault and now had spiked again to near seventy thousand. "Who... do you think they are?" she asked, glancing over to her sister for a second before turning her eyes forward again, not wanting to keep them off two opponents of such power for long.

"I... only know of two Nameks who aren't on their world." Storm said slowly. "Slug and Master Piccolo. I doubt this one is Master Piccolo, why would he attack an Imperial ship? But he doesn't look like Slug, either...."

"Should we... try and help out?" asked Rain. In the ten seconds since her scouter flared the two before them had wiped out nearly two thirds of the guards surrounding them.

"I don't think we'd be much help." Storm muttered. She'd been hoping for a good fight but seeing these two tearing through the guards without even being hit had put a strong damper on that, especially since her scouter was still reading round numbers for both fighters. Neither was yet at full power but still were strong enough to take her out without issue. Suddenly her eyes widened. "Oh shi...."

The rest of her sentence was drowned out by an ear splitting explosion so violent she felt her bones shaking. One of the boxes of Xerudia that she and the others had loaded onto the ship, along with Brolly, had been hit by a stray ki blast, the mineral inside exploding savagely. The first explosion was accompanied by two more a second later as both the box above and below it exploded. "Chain reaction!" Rain cried, flying backward away from the hold as five more boxes erupted. Three of the Sai-jin guards near the boxes were engulfed and incinerated in the continuing and growing series of explosions as, one by one, all fifty-seven boxes detonated.

Storm lowered her arms from in front of her face as the last bone jarring explosion died, though she was sure she could still feel her teeth vibrating in her jaws. Six more of the Sai-jin guards had vanished in the force of the explosion, who knew how many now lay scattered about on the hold floor in dozens of pieces, and a few were laying on the floor screaming, their flesh seared off where exposed to the heat of the blasts. The Namek had been the closer of the two intruders to the explosions and the only one to suffer damage having lost an arm and a leg on the left side of his body, and having the flesh burnt off on that side as well. But as the Wathor watched him grimace in pain new limbs sprouted and skin grew over the burns.

The hold wasn't in any better condition than the people. The floor and wall in that area had been completely blasted apart. Through the new gaping hole, at least a hundred and fifty feet wide, the ship's engines were clearly visible, and clearly damaged. Smoking and sparking, with energy surging along their length. And then the sirens started up followed by the whine of the emergency blast doors closing. The Captain was sealing off the entire rear quarter of the ship and Storm could see why. The exterior wall that was the hold's ceiling was slowly warping up, out of the ship. The heat of the explosions had weakened the hull too much, the pressure difference would tear open a sizable hole within a few minutes. And with the massive hole blasted through into the engine room and the lower hold, the one where Brolly was stored and their companions resided, there was no way to seal off just this hold.

"The bastard's not even waiting for us to evacuate!" Rain growled.

"We'll see about that." Storm said, thumbing her scouter but still watching the two intruders as they floated near the middle of the hold, talking. A second later she'd patched through to the bridge. "What do you think you're doing, sealing off the holds before we're out?" she demanded immediately.

"Who gives a damn about you?" the Captain demanded. "I didn't ask for you to be here."

"No, we're here on orders from Master Gero and Master Vegeta. Re-open the blast doors so...."

"In case you've forgotten _I'm_ the captain of this ship, I'll do whatever the hell I want." the Captain growled. "I don't know when the hull will rupture, but when it does it'll suck out all the air in this ship in about forty seconds. The doors take sixty to close. I'm not opening them again."

"And what the _fuck_ are we supposed to do!?" Rain demanded.

"Hold your breath till we get to Saiya." he said with a laugh as he cut the line.

"**BASTARD**!" Rain cried, pulling off her scouter and pitching it at the wall where it hit and shattered.

Her cry got the attention of Tao and Nail, who'd both temporarily forgotten them. Turning their way they floated over, the sisters going on their guard as they neared. "We have no interest in fighting you if we don't have to." said Nail as he saw them stiffen. "We are only here for supplies, food rations."

"Who are you?" asked Rain.

"No one important." Tao replied. "Once we have our supplies we'll be on our way."

"Yeah, and what about us?" asked Storm with a nod toward the still warping hull and massive hole in the walls and floor.

Tao shrugged. "You should still have time to get to a safe part of the ship if you go now."

"The blast doors are already closed." Rain nearly growled, scowling at the remains of her scouter and wishing it was the remains of the ship's Captain.

"Take us with you." said Storm. "On your ship."

Nail and Tao glanced at each other for a moment before Tao spoke again. "Just the two of you?"

"No, there's four others. In the hold down below." Storm replied, giving a nod toward the hole in the floor for emphasis.

"My ship isn't large enough for eight people." Tao said. "And the food requirements would be far greater to feed seven than to feed one."

Though Storm scowled at the response it was Rain the spoke. "I don't think you've got the time to find any food without help." she said. "We've already got plenty of food with us for feeding ourselves and know where there are rations in quick access."

Tao sighed. His ship really wasn't large enough for this many people, there was only the one bedroom, the training room, the command room, the small storage room, and his meditation room, and he wasn't keen on the idea of Imperial soldiers traveling with him. Still, he knew the woman had a point. The hull was already starting to groan under the strain as it bent further and further out of the ship. "Very well, in exchange for your help securing our supplies we'll take the six of you out of here with us."

Storm nodded. "This way, it'll be faster." she said, flying off toward the hole and down into the lower hold.

"Storm!" Xeno cried as she and her sister came down. "What's going... who are they?" he asked as Tao and Nail came down.

"Our ticket to not being sucked into space." Storm replied. "Capsulize everything, now. We're leaving. Rain, go over to the next hold with these two and grab whatever rations they need." Rain nodded in reply and lead Tao and Nail to the next hold but Xeno and the others just stared at Storm.

"What do you mean, sucked into space? And what's this about leaving?" Zukina demanded.

"I mean the Xerudia just went off, the hull is about to snap, the Captain's closed the blast doors and is refusing to re-open them, and those two are going to let us leave with them in exchange for helping them get the food they need." Storm said. "Now let's move, start packing."

They didn't need to be told again and quickly set about capsulizing everything they had out. It only took them a moment to get everything put away again and packed back into cases and pockets. Meanwhile Rain, Tao, and Nail returned from the other hold with the boxes of rations they'd gone for. "We've got it, let's go." said Rain, following the other two out and up to the hole.

"Alright. Eve, Xeno, hold on to me. Zukina, carry Everfrost. Going up through the hole is fastest." The Sai-jin scowled at Storm on principle but did as told while the Wathor took a firm hold of Xeno and Eve's hands. They were just floating into the air when there was sudden loud whine followed by a snap, and then the lights went out and the artificial gravity died.

"Power failure!" Zukina called. "The engines must have just died."

"I can't see shit." Storm muttered, trying to spot the hole in the ceiling in the darkness. However, while she could no longer see with the lights out, now that the droning hum of the engines was gone she could hear the groaning and straining of the hull as it tore and knew they didn't have much time left before it ripped open. She felt one of the two people hanging on to her fidget a bit, letting go to hold on with one hand, and then there was a flare of white light. Glancing down she saw Xeno holding up a flash light. Looking back up she saw Zukina pass through the hole in the ceiling and followed after her.

Up in the next hold she spotted the blasted hatch door that the Sai-jin was heading for and followed after once more. She reached the hatch a second after the Sai-jin and trailed her up through into the other ship feeling the comfortable return of gravity as she passed through the door into the ship. "Everyone's in!" Nail called up from where he stood near the sloping walls. As Storm set Eve and Xeno down onto their feet the hatch door hissed and then closed and locked. The ship shook as the docking clamps disengaged and then shuddered as the engines kicked in.

Everyone quickly followed the Namek up the ladder three floors to the command deck of the small ship and watched the monitor as the cargo ship began to shrink, the bulging of the hull clearly visible. It was almost a minute later they saw the hull suddenly tear open and then a great section of it ripped off and flew out into space followed by most of the boxes that were in the hold and, though they couldn't be seen at this distance, the bodies of the Sai-jin guards. All six of those from the ship shuddered at the thought of how close they came to being sucked out with them.

"So, um, where are we going?" asked Everfrost.

"More importantly." interrupted Eve, before either of their rescuers could reply. "Where can we stay, it's too damn hot in here." She had already pulled out the capsule containing her tub and was rolling it between her index finger and thumb.

Tao nodded. "You'll have to all stay in the old training room." he said. "It's the only place where there's space. It's one floor down. Nail can take you and get you settled in."

"Thanks for the rescue." said Xeno, eyes still watching the monitor.

"And that, folks, is why I hate space travel." said Storm, turning away from the monitor to follow after Nail.

ZZZ

Aboard the Talon the Captain smiled as he watched the hull rip open on his own monitor. He'd not liked their 'hitch hikers' since he received the orders to divert and pick them up. The time it took to go out to Geozan 7 and get them would cost him several thousand credits in late fees when he delivered his cargo. It wasn't like he could say no to a direct order from a Master, though, so he'd had no choice. And then the two guards had been stronger than him, too strong to over power, which meant no compensation for his monetary losses, and then the one went and took his head of maintenance, and again there was nothing he could do or say about it.

He had to admit, it had given him a degree of satisfaction to close the blast doors and even more satisfaction to refuse to re-open them when the bitch had called. The smile had come of its own will as he'd watched the hull rip open. Sure, he was out even more money now, all of the cargo formerly in the holds was adrift in space, his communications were spotty, and it'd cost him at least a year's profits to make repairs. But all of that damage, all of that money, the loss of the guards who'd gone down to fend off the intruders, and even the loss of the maintenance head, was all worth it to watch those asses get sucked into space.

He flicked off the screen a moment later and turned to the others on the deck with him. "Alright, time to start making what repairs we can." he said. "I want all maintenance stuff suited up and out there in twenty minutes. We need to repair the hull well enough to restore atmosphere in the holds and engine room, then we can fix the engines and get gravity back. Meanwhile, comms, you keep trying to get through to someone to come and pick us up. It'll probably be a couple of months or so before they can get here, but chances are it'll take us that long to make all the repairs anyway. Alright folks, lets get to work."

Meanwhile, the cargo hold that had, until moments ago, been used as quarters by Xeno and the others now stood almost completely empty. All of the boxes had been sucked out of the room now and all that remained was the pod, firmly anchored to the floor, and the cryostasis chamber that held Brolly, firmly secured to the floor and wall. The only light in the room came from a small green light near the chamber's control panel. But a moment later it went out and a blinking red light came on. The control panel lit up a second later as a notice appeared on its screen.

*ATTENTION*

*PRIMARY POWER SOURCE LOST - BACKUP SYSTEMS ENGAGED*

*BACKUP POWER REAMING - 750 HOURS*

*IF PRIMARY POWER IS NOT RESTORED IN 740 HOURS AUTO THAW SYSTEMS WILL ENGAGE*

ZZZ

North Kai took another long sip of his cherry milkshake as he reclined back on his chair and watched Mitsuki take another hard swing at the speeding Gregory. Enzeru had already hit the little bug a few days ago and Mitsuki, he could see, was getting quite close to doing so as well, and Tien was currently resting from his last attempt at hitting Gregory. Occasionally he would glimpse a blur of brown showing that either Krillin or Yamcha were chasing Bubbles again. The two of them were getting closer and closer to catching him every day, North Kai figured Krillin would have him by tomorrow at the latest, and Yamcha would have him within two weeks. They were all proceeding through the pre-training much faster than he'd expected.

Enzeru, he could sense, was sitting inside his small house meditating at the moment. Until Mitsuki hit Gregory there wasn't much the woman could do. There was too much activity going on right now, with all the chasing and mallet swinging, for her to really do any training. Once Krillin and Yamcha had caught Bubbles it would be far easier to train. They wouldn't have to worry about getting in anyone's way then. And even before that the Kai figured the two women would do some light sparring while they waited.

_"North Kai?"_

The short Kai jumped and nearly choked on his milkshake at the sudden and unexpected voice in his head, however it went unnoticed by his students. _"Geez, give an old man some warning, would you?"_ he telepathically responded.

_"Sorry North Kai. I... I wanted to know... is it true?"_

_"You've finally heard, then? Yes, it's true. The Earth is gone. They're here now and making excellent progress in the pre-training."_

_"But they are... still alive, right?"_

_"They are."_ North Kai reassured him. _"So, I take it you're finally back from your mission. How did it go?"_

_"As well as can be expected, I suppose."_ the voice replied. _"They held me up and made me wait for months before finally telling me he had no time to see me and that I could give them the Supreme Kai's message and they would pass it along 'as soon as the chance to do so occurs' which, of course, means...."_

_"Whenever they damn well feel like it. Ingrates."_ North Kai snorted. _"It could be months yet before he even gets the message. Well, at least we know he'll get it. They wont pretend to forget to give it to him, they'll be too scared of what would happen to them if he found out."_

_"Yeah. I'm just glad to be out of there at last, I just wish I'd been back sooner so I could have seen him before he left."_ There was a moment of silence as he considered something. _"North Kai, do you think, maybe, I could help with their training?"_

_"Hmmm. I don't see why not."_ replied the Kai. _"In fact, I think that might make things even easier. You have mastered the move where I have not, and better than anyone else has. I think, once we get to that stage of their training, your knowledge would be quite valuable. You should be able to teach it better than I. However, I think waiting until then would be best. I don't want to distract them any more than is necessary right now."_

_"Ok. Let me know when it's time."_

_"Sure. "_ North Kai said as he felt the telepathic link break with his former student. The mental conversation now over he turned his focus back to the training before him and his eyes widened slowly behind his glasses as a brown and orange blur zipped passed him once, twice, three times, and then stopped dead not more than ten feet away. Krillin had just caught Bubbles.


	27. A Matter of Faith

_Chapter Twenty-seven - A Matter of Faith_

Gero sat at his computer going over all the data he had gathered recently on Kakkarotto and his bloodline. It had been as difficult as he'd expected to get a blood sample from Kakkarotto. In the end he'd needed Videl to deliver the Sai-jin a drugged box of doughnuts to knock him out so she could extract the blood. The doctor found it all rather tedious and still couldn't understand how the most powerful person in the universe could be so damned terrified of a simple needle. Still, he'd gotten all the samples he'd needed, Pan had drawn her own and transmitted the data to his computer less than an hour after he'd contacted her, almost a week ago now, but the computer had only just finished its full analysis and comparison of all the data.

What Gero saw on his screen was both fascinating and confusing. According to the scans of their DNA Pan, Goten, and Kakkarotto were all related but Gohan was not. Not related to any of them at all. That was how much his DNA had changed. The computer not recognizing him as him had been one thing but for the DNA to have changed so much that the computer no longer considered him a relative of Kakkarotto's was something else entirely. What's more, the genetic sequence he'd been searching for in the others was not present. It wasn't in anyone but Gohan but the fact that it had been in Gohan from the age of five ruled out the possibility that it had been added after his birth.

"I just don't understand." Gero mused, looking over the four information displays. "The sequence had to be inserted somewhere, at some time. But how? And why wasn't it passed on to Pan?" He typed in a few things and a fifth genetic analysis came up on the screen, one for Chi-Chi. She, too, was marked as a relative for Goten and Pan but not for Gohan. He'd gone over her DNA several times in the past, at the request of Vegeta, in an attempt to see if Gohan's condition had been related to his Human parentage. But he'd never found anything there to suggest she was the source of the problem.

A few more button taps and he had the computer running a full comparison between Gohan's DNA and that of Chi-Chi's and Kakkarotto's. He watched as various bits of data on the three displays lit up highlighting what genetic information Gohan had had come from which parent. In a normal comparison the child would share about 99.7% of their DNA with their parents. 0.3% of their genetic make-up would be purely original, the results of natural mutation during embryonic development. He had done this comparison with Goten earlier and gotten a result of 99.68% which was well within the normal range. However, when the current comparison finished it showed that Gohan only shared 68.35% of his DNA with his parents.

"Over a quarter of his genetic structure is original?" Gero wondered in surprise. "Astounding. I can't achieve numbers like that without years of work in a controlled lab environment. I wonder...." He quickly entered another series of commands into the computer and a sixth DNA analysis appeared, the first one he had for Gohan, from when he was five. Again he ran the comparison. Gohan had since achieved Super Sai-jin 2 which, Gero knew, would cause a slight alteration in his genetic make-up from when he was a child, but it would only account for about a 0.07% change. He was interested to see how much different his DNA actually was now from when he was child. He already knew it had to be significant but....

"Only a 75.04% match?" he said, shocked. "A quarter of his genetic structure has changed since he was five?" He furrowed his brow in thought and then quickly ran another scan, this time comparing the five year old Gohan's DNA with that of his parents. Parentage had never been a consideration or concern with the children of the Masters so he'd never bothered to run such a check before. A moment later the results came back. "Hmm, 99.57% is a bit low but not completely beyond normal. Though this is most interesting. Even though the genetic sequence is present at this point it would seem that little or no change to his DNA had yet occurred.

"Hmm, the first attack I remember him reporting was about two years ago... let's see...." He quickly ran a few more comparisons and was shocked, once more, by what he found. "Gohan's DNA remained, effectively, unchanged up until two years ago. All of the new genetic information, almost 25% of his entire genetic make-up, has been added in just the last two years. Truly remarkable. But why can't I find the source of the genetic sequence in his parents? It makes no sense, it shouldn't be possible for such a thing to be present in just Gohan. A sequence like this wouldn't appear as just a part of natural mutation, it must have an origin."

He leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms, and frowned at the screen as he considered the problem. "The genetic sequence in Master Gohan is unique to him but its origins must trace back to one of his parents, there's no way it could have been added after his birth. But how do you single out one person for a genetic modification and not all of a person's children, and without altering the genetic structure of a parent?" he mused. And then his eyes widened. "Could it have been...?" he wondered. "Yes, yes, that is possible. That must be it, it's the only thing that makes sense.

"The initial genetic sequence must have been encoded on some sort of virus, bacteria, or parasite. A singular organism introduced into Kakkarotto's body, or perhaps even into Chi-Chi's as this method would leave no obvious physical signs of its presence, designed to hunt out... what? A reproductive cell? A developing zygote? Either way makes no difference in the end, I suppose, the result would be the same. This extra genetic sequence would add itself to the combining DNA, mix itself in as part of the newly growing life, and thus be there from the start with no trace of its origins. But... how? How would this have been added to either Master Kakkarotto or to Mistress Chi-Chi? And when, why? What's the reason?"

He leaned forward again and quickly set up a simulation to run, in order to work out a few concepts, and then switched off the monitor and stood. He had found all he could from the genetic information he'd gathered. Now it was time to speak with Kakkarotto and Chi-Chi and see if he could find a time, a location, or an event that could have been when this information, this virus or bacteria or parasite or whatever it was, had been introduced, and to which of them it had been introduced to. Perhaps, with that knowledge, he could determine the reason, the purpose, for what was happening with Gohan, and maybe then he could stop, possibly even reverse, what was happening.

XXX

The first thing she felt was the pain. Lancing pain like the back of her skull was being split open. Shooting pain like someone had jammed a live electrical wire into the top of her spine. As consciousness and, in turn, thought returned to her confusion swept through her mind. She couldn't remember where she was or what could possibly be causing her such pain. She felt the light before she saw it, pressing in against her eyelids and turning the blackness of unconsciousness into the reddish-pink of the back side of her eyelids. As she came to more and more the pain grew worse and worse until she began to feel sick from it, though she knew there was nothing in her stomach to bring up.

With a groan she tried to force the pain away and opened her eyes. The stabbing brightness of the white lights reflected off the metal walls hurt her eyes and made the pain in her head worse. Her first thought, as she got a glimpse of her surroundings through the glare of the white lights, was that she was in one of the cells on Saiya, in the palace, which just confused her even more. But as her eyes adjusted to the glare and the room came more into focus she realized it was too large, too clean, to be one of the palace's cells.

That's when she realized that she wasn't laying down, wasn't even standing, but was hanging by her arms. She tried to tilt her head up, to see what was holding her, but that small movement shot a searing wave of agony down through her spine that made her cry out. As the pain faded some, and left room for thought again, she could feel cold metal wrapped around her wrists, her arms were numb and sore. No doubt she'd been hanging this way for a while, and she truly was hanging as she could feel nothing below her feet and could, in fact, see that her toes were a good foot above the floor. And she see something glinting down around her feet, but she couldn't tell what.

Confusion mounted more for a moment until memory began to push its way past the pain. The orders she'd gotten from Bra, the pod launch, the landing on Leberion, the information she'd gotten from the workers at the factory, and then being surrounded by the Battle Droids. The last thing she could remember was deciding to pull back, to get away from their vastly superior numbers and come up with some new plan on dealing with what had been far more powerful machines than she had anticipated encountering. Someone, or something, had snuck up behind her and hit her, knocked her out. It was the only thing that made sense.

_"But how long have I been out?"_ she wondered. She chanced trying to raise her head again but stopped as she screamed out in pain, another intensive wave of agony flooding down through her spine. She fought the building urge to try and vomit, knowing that doing so would only cause more pain, and moved her eyes around to try and see as much of the room as possible. From what she could see it was little more than a metal box, no tables or chairs or windows within her field of view. And no trace of whatever it was that was causing her such pain when she tried to move her head. However, she did spy a body suit lying in a corner, which made her look down at herself again and notice, for the first time, that her armor, gloves, boots, and body suit were missing. Undoubtedly the one in the corner was hers.

She tried moving her legs and found that they were bound. The glint she'd seen from her near her feet had been metal cuffs around her ankles and metal chains reaching down to the floor. She couldn't move her legs more than a few inches in any direction before reaching the end of the chains. And, for some reason, she couldn't seem to summon the strength needed to break free of them. She tried to use her energy to fly, to float up into the air and release the strain on her sore arms, but found she couldn't do that, either. _"Fucking terrific."_ she thought, scowling. _"Captured, __**stripped**__, and thoroughly trapped less than an hour after I landed. This mission is turning out spectacularly already."_ She felt she could live with the captured and trapped part, but the stripped part had her rather ticked off.

She turned her eyes as far as they'd go as she heard a whooshing sound from behind her. "Ah, so it _is_ awake again." said a male voice. She heard a few thunks of heavy booted feet on the floor and then a figure walked into her field vision. She saw his black, steel toed, boots first. Then noticed the blue body suit and black gloves, and then spotted the armor. Battle armor, but not hers, not even Imperial now. Blue and black. She recognized the style, large shoulder fins that jutted up and out instead of just out, leg guards, and a crotch guard. It was at least thirty years old, the Empire didn't even make that design anymore. She couldn't look up high enough to see his face.

"Or perhaps I should say on-line again?" he mused. "I'm not really sure which would apply to you. I'd heard all of the Doctor's toys were machines but you're more flesh and blood than steel and circuitry. The idea of mechanical augmentation has always intrigued me though none of my efforts at it have ever been successful. I imagine studying your body once we're through with you will give me some insights as to where I went wrong. I must confess, though, I had not expected any of the Masters to come here so soon, I figured we'd see stronger soldiers first. I am glad it was you, though. You'll be most useful."

"What...?" 18 asked in a hoarse voice, her throat burned as she tried to speak.

"Able to talk, even? Impressive indeed. I was worried the restraints wouldn't work on you at all but they seem to do just fine." The boots started to move away with a steady thunk, thunk, thunk. "I have a few more things to ready before your services are required. Don't worry, your death will help bring us that much closer to victory." And with that the door behind her whooshed shut again.

_"I think I just met the new Resistance leader. Valor, I believe it was. But what the hell was he talking about? And what sort of restraints are they using on me?"_ she wondered. While some of what he'd said had made little sense she had fully understood the hint that he intended to dissect her after her death. And she knew that in her current condition killing her would probably be easy. She doubted they'd even need one of the Battle Droids, just a soldier and a simple ki blast to the head or chest. Hell, in her current state they could probably just pull out a knife and slit her throat if they wanted. _"Fucking terrific."_ she thought again.

She wasn't entirely sure how long she hung there. She tried moving her head, slowly, a few more times, but always the shooting pain down her spine would stop that before she'd gotten anywhere. The pain in her head and her back persisted no matter what she did, though, too strong for her to close her mind to it and too great to override with the nano-bots that coursed through her, though she tried. She wasn't sure if she could feel her fingers or hands anymore after a while, though her arms were so stiff and sore she thought maybe the sensation was just being overridden by everything else she was feeling. At last she heard the door whoosh open again but this time there wasn't the thunking of boots.

The foot steps that approached her now were softer than those of before and then a pair of brown moccasins came into view. Brown moccasins, gray pants, a green shirt, and an open white lab coat (both of the latter jutted out some, which meant this time she was dealing with a female). Making lab coats white seemed to be some sort of law of nature, one of those weird constants from race to race and culture to culture. Normally such things would strike a sense of curiosity in her at the, apparently, deep seated sameness of the universe's races. This time, though, she just found the bright white cloth, strongly reflecting the bright lights above, to be annoying.

It took a few seconds to see past the glare of the coat and realize she could also see a face. Or, at least, the bottom half of one. Deep blue skin, midnight blue lips, and long thin nose. She looked up at the woman as best she could and waited for her to say something.

"Is it true?" the woman asked at last, her voice trembling slightly. "You came here to kill everyone? Everyone on the planet?"

_"Is that what they think or is that just what Valor's telling them?"_ she wondered. "No." she said, the only word she was able to force through her throat. The woman seemed a bit shocked at the reply and it took 18 a moment to realize it was likely more from the fact that she'd spoken than from the answer she'd given, considering what Valor had said. "Throat... sore." she managed.

The woman seemed to hesitate for a moment and then moved away. There were a few moments of silence and then she was back with a small glass of water. 18 had a hard time drinking it without lifting her head but managed a few swallows and felt the burning subside greatly, which surprised her. She didn't need to eat and didn't need to drink, there was no reason for a dried out throat or for water to make it better. Not under normal circumstances, at least, and she had to remind herself that her current situation wasn't normal.

"Better?" the woman asked.

"Yes." 18 said, only feeling a dry scratch now, and having to forcibly remind herself not to nod her reply. "Thanks. Who are you?"

"I'm Faith, I'm one of the main technicians here at Plant One." the woman replied, the tremble still there in her voice, but a little less so. "You say you're not here to kill everyone? But why else would a Master come to our world? You didn't seem to have a problem killing Valiant or Serenity."

18 closed her eyes. "Not everyone." she said after a moment. "Only... those I must."

"Must? So you _had_ to kill them?" There was something of an accusatory tone to the voice now.

18 sighed. This was like talking to that voice in her head that she tried to keep locked up all the time. Well, at least she had plenty of practice. "Needed answers fast." she replied. "And the woman...." she shook her head a little and then winced and cried out at the pain. It took a moment for it to clear and for her to be able to talk again. "She fought."

"She couldn't have hurt you."

"Not the point." 18 replied. "The mentality was the problem."

Faith seemed to contemplate that answer for a moment. "You didn't kill her _because_ she attacked you but because she was _willing_ to attack you...."

It was more a statement than a question but 18 replied anyway. "Yes." She swallowed, trying to force her throat to work better, it was getting sore again.

"But you still came here to kill us."

18 couldn't help but notice that the tremble had gone from the voice now, and the accusatory tone had become as clear as the previous tremble. "We're not that... different." she said, opening her eyes again and looking up, best as she could, to see the other's face. "We fight... for the same reasons."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm here to... protect my family. My daughter."

"Protect them? What do you have to...."

"My daughter is... just a Human. A nobody to the Empire and... not strong enough to protect herself." 18 answered. "Anything that... threatens the Empire... threatens her. I will do anything... to keep her... safe." From what little of the woman's face that 18 could see she could tell she was a bit surprised at the reply and was considering it. The Cyborg closed her eyes to block out some of the light. The room really was too bright, it strained her eyes and made her head hurt even worse. She hung there in silence for a while, letting the woman mull over what she'd said, before speaking again. "Who do you fight for?" she asked, opening her eyes again.

The question apparently caught the woman off guard, she seemed startled, and it took her a moment to answer. "Everyone." she said. "Everyone here on Leberion who can't fight for themselves."

"Even though all your fighting does... is put them at risk?" asked 18.

"They are always at risk. We all are. It's only because we're so strong of mind that we've lasted this long, despite the Empire's constant attacks." Faith replied. "If I didn't fight then the innocent and those I care about wouldn't have any protection, they'd all be long dead."

_"The Empire's constant attacks?"_ 18 wondered, confused. _"The Empire hasn't been here in ten years. Vegeta only ever sent one attack force here, and even then only because Gero wanted samples of the native life and technology. Since then it's been largely ignored since the atmosphere is toxic to most races of the Empire. A piece of real estate is worthless if you can't even use it, after all. That's why 17 was to come here and why I got the orders in his stead."_

18 had a strong desire to try and shake her head, to clear away the confusion, but she fought it down. Whatever the hell it was that was causing her pain when she moved her head was really starting to annoy her. "What constant attacks by the Empire?" she asked after a moment.

"The ships, the troops, that come every few months." said Faith, as though it were obvious. "There hasn't been any for almost eighteen months now, but they came regularly for a while. Every three or four months there would be dozens of ships swooping down on us without warning, hundreds of soldiers spilling out and killing anyone in their way, capturing others."

Now 18 was really confused. "What are you talking about?" she asked, raising her eyes as far as they'd go to try and see the other woman's face again. "The Empire hasn't sent anyone here in ten years, not since Dr. Gero requested the first mission."

"Are you calling me a liar?" asked Faith, clearly angry. "I've seen them, I've seen the Empire's ships and the Empire's soldiers! I hid under the floor boards in my house, watched them raid my village, rape and kill my mother! The Empire's soldiers, every last one of them! And wearing the armor and the eye things to prove it."

_"This doesn't make any sense."_ 18 thought, screwing her eyes closed and thinking. Despite all of the trouble Leberion had caused in the last ten years with the Battle Droids being sent out to attack different Imperial bases Vegeta never really paid the world much attention. From the files she'd gone over on her way to the planet she had the distinct impression that he had pretty much forgotten about the world before the ink was even dry on the orders that sent the troops here ten years before. And there were no orders, none, in any of the records, to send any more troops to the world since then.

If any of the Masters had ordered such troop movements there would be records. If not records of the orders themselves then, at least, records of the troops dispatched, the fuel and the supplies used, that sort of thing. Vegeta and Gero kept very stringent records on all expenses, down to the last cent, even on the most covert and secret of operations. The Sai-jin royal liked to know where his money went and why it went there and wanted to make sure if anyone tried to steal the Empire's funds, as had happened on a few occasions, they'd be easily detected and caught, as they always were.

So how could what Faith was saying be possible? Dozens of ships _would_ mean hundreds of men. At least two hundred, though likely closer to four hundred. Compared to the over all size of the Empire's forces it wasn't much but it _was_ a lot of man power to mobilize against just _one_ planet. The Empire hardly ever sent more than ten people to a world for any mission. Even the team ten years ago had only been eight men. Well, eight fighters and a few dozen science types. Four hundred men would leave a huge paper trail, a huge expense trail. You couldn't just send a force like that and it not be noticed. But she said they had... wait a second....

"Someone came before." 18 said slowly. "I think it was Valor, but I'm not sure. He wore battle armor, though."

"So he has been to see you then?" Faith asked. "I'd heard he was coming but wasn't sure if he'd been here yet. Yes, that was Valor. The armor he wears is proof of the Empire's attacks. It was taken from the body of one of the attackers, from their last assault on us. The first one we successfully drove off."

"That armor is ancient." 18 said. "It's not Imperial, not anymore."

"What do you mean? It's just like all the others."

"No, it's not. It's a design that isn't used now. Hasn't been for thirty years. No soldier of the Empire wears armor like that now."

"The soldiers who came here wore it so you can't tell me the Empire doesn't use it!"

18 sighed. "That's what I'm saying." she said. "Whoever has been attacking, if they're wearing that armor, then they aren't from the Empire. That amor style isn't even in production these days."

"Ok, then who would they be?" Faith demanded.

"No idea." replied 18. "We had no idea anyone was even attacking this world, we just knew you kept sending your Battle Droids out to attack us."

"Why should I believe you?"

"The Empire doesn't send dozens of ships or hundreds of troops to attack a planet." 18 said. "Master Vegeta considers it a waste of resources to expend more than is needed for any mission. If it were the Empire coming here there wouldn't be more than ten people attacking you."

"There were more than ten of them ten years ago."

"I said attacking." repeated 18. "Ten years ago that was an eight man team. Only eight fighters. The rest were scientists, Gero's people, here to get data for him."

Faith didn't respond right away. Everyone knew that only eight of those who had come the first time had fought, that the rest had stayed back in areas of safety. No one had doubted that they had all been fighters, though. Everyone just knew... assumed... that they had stayed back simply because they hadn't been needed in the battle. The eight that had fought had demolished all attempts to resist their presence. Could the others have really been a science team? "But why?" she asked after a moment. "Why send a science team?"

"Gero wanted data. DNA samples to understand how life survives here when the air is toxic to most everyone else in the known universe, and samples of your technology, to see if he could make any use of it." replied 18. "Gero was the only one int...."

"Toxic?" asked Faith, interupting. "What are you talking about? You're not having any problems breathing here and neither were any of those who have been attacking us."

"I don't need to breathe." replied 18. Her throat was really burning again but now that she was getting some sort of answers, even if they were causing more questions, she was forcing herself to ignore it and keep talking. "My body is kept alive by my implants and nano-bots. I don't need air, I don't need water, I don't need food. I breathe only because I'm used to it, because my brain is programmed that way from when I was just a Human and just does it on reflex, and because I still need air to talk with. But nothing in the air is absorbed into my body so I can come here without problem.

"There are only about four or five known races that could live on this world, breathe this air, and not be harmed. Because of the toxic atmosphere the Empire has no interest in this world aside from Gero's scientific curiosity and that was, apparently, satisfied ten years ago. I went over all the data on this planet on my way here, including all related mission orders. No Imperial soldiers have set foot on this world in ten years."

18 could, just barely, see Faith biting her lip as she mulled this over. Obviously the woman's years of dealing with what she'd always believed to be Imperial soldiers was telling her not to believe the blonde hanging in front of her but she still couldn't help but wonder. 18 didn't want to press her luck, though. Push too hard, try too hard to make the woman believe her, and she could cause the opposite. Make her think it was all lie, a fabrication told to try and save her own skin. That would be bad considering it was looking like Faith believing her might be her only chance for freedom without it costing a lot of lives.

And, what's more, if she could convince Valor and the rest of them of the truth she could end this mission without any more blood on her hands. After all, once they knew they weren't being attacked by the Empire, and that the Empire in fact had no interest in them, there would be no more need for a Resistance. Granted, the Battle Droids would still have to go, and it was likely the Empire would take some level of interest after this to make sure they stayed gone. But the Empire could also drive away whoever it was who was attacking them. Vegeta would not take kindly to the idea of imposter Imperial soldiers raiding planets once he found out.

But Faith had posed a good question. Just who _was_ raiding Leberion? Pirates, maybe? And where would they have gotten the armors and the scouters? All of that old stuff was supposed to be destroyed once no longer in use. Had some ship's captain decided to skim some money from the Empire by dumping the stuff on some world near the start of their trip, and then billed for the cost of fuel and expenses of the full trip? It was definitely a plausible idea. Especially if the captain were from one of the less... scrupulous races.

18 got her first look at the woman's entire face then, as she knelt down to try and look the Cyborg in the eyes. Her eyes looked a little small for her face, her ears looked almost the right size for her head (which meant they were considerably smaller than normal), and the horn on the top of her head was chipped, the top three centimeters or so had apparently been broken off at some point. "I want the fighting to end." Faith said after a moment, her voice a lot softer than it had been at any other point in their talk. "I don't... don't want to see anyone else killed for nothing, for no reason at all. I'm sick of it."

"I know the feeling." 18 said, keeping her eyes locked on Faith's, though wishing the woman had some sort of pupils to stare at instead of all those black facets reflecting her own face back at her. "But it may be too late. If I die here there will be no compromise. Master Vegeta may not even send anyone else to stop the Resistance here, just someone to destroy the planet completely." 18's voice caught for a moment then as 'Like Earth' sounded in her mind. She pushed it away and focused on what Faith was saying.

"I can't just set you free. Your word isn't enough to convince me of what you say, or that you wont just start killing people again once released, starting with me."

18 managed to smile faintly. "No, I wouldn't expect it to." she said. "But I can prove it. To you and to Valor."

"How?"

"My pod has a direct link to the Imperial Network." 18 explained. "And all of the data on this world is currently still loaded into its memory, including all Imperial orders issued in relation to the world. You can look, see for yourself, there hasn't been anyone ordered here in ten years, except me. Or rather, my brother, but I came in his place since he was being held up elsewhere."

Faith chewed on her lip for a bit. "Alright, I'll look." she said. "But... what happens if it is true and you can't convince Valor?"

18 sighed. "Peacefully or not I have to stop the Resistance here, stop the Battle Droids." she replied. "But like I said, I only kill those I must."

Faith stood up and moved back a little, still chewing on her lip. "Alright. I'm... I'm going to go look."

"The access code is K736M771." 18 told her. Faith nodded and then 18 heard the padding of her moccasined feet as she left the room, the whoosh of the door as it opened and closed, and then silence. She had no idea how long it would be before Faith would come back, or if maybe Valor would return first. If he did, 18 wasn't sure what she'd do then, she really didn't want to have to fall back to her last resort. She'd already checked, her transmission lines were still open. If it came down to it she could send a priority distress call....

She wasn't sure how much time passed, at least two hours she figured, maybe longer, before she heard the whoosh of the doors opening again. She focused her ears and listened and, a moment later, heard the soft tapping of moccasined feet. A second later Faith came into view again, kneeling down so that they could see each others eyes. "You looked?" 18 asked.

Faith nodded. "I did." she said. "I went through all of it and saw what you said is true." She started chewing her lip again and 18 realized then that something was wrong. Before she could ask Faith continued. "I talked to Valor. Told him what you told me, showed him the information, but...."

"Not in the believing mood, I take it?"

Faith shook her head. "He said the data was fake, said we've seen the soldiers and their armors, and that your claim that their armor isn't used anymore is nonsense, since we've seen it used. He... he destroyed the pod. Fired an energy blast at it and blew it up. In order to 'prevent the spread of lies'." Faith closed her eyes and shook her head again. "I even told him what you said, you know, about what the Masters might do if you're killed here, but he ignored that, too. He said you were just trying to scare me and that no one has the power to blow up a planet."

18 laughed despite the pain she was in, despite the situation she was in, and despite that she wasn't the least bit amused. "A month ago my world, Earth, was blown to pieces." she said. "It and everyone on it destroyed, completely, because the people there wouldn't stop fighting the Empire. Every single Master, and quite a number of the Empire's standard soldiers, have more than enough power to destroy a planet. Even your Battle Droids have enough power."

Faith's eyes widened some. "What? The Battle Droids? Capable of destroying a planet?"

"Yes. Anyone or anything capable of producing an attack greater than 250,000 has enough power to destabilize a planet core and cause the planet's destruction with a focused attack." 18 said. "Your Battle Droids are well over that, some of the ones I fought were at least half of my power. The one that knocked me out had to be even closer."

"It was a Sentinel. A new model that Valor's been working on for a while, since before he took over." said Faith. "Twice the power of the Paladin design, the current strongest."

_"Well isn't that perfect. They've got Battle Droids as powerful as me. Damn it. I don't want to have to transmit a priority distress call. Chances are it would be either 16, Gero, or Frieza who would come and... I don't want to do that to these people, not over a misunderstanding."_ she thought. _"And if Valor really believes what he said, that a single person can't destroy a planet, then he and his machines are more dangerous than anyone realized. Dangerous to himself and the people of this planet."_

"My equal, then." 18 said after a moment. "And thusly strong enough to destroy this planet with just the explosive force of a concentrated energy blast. If Valor really doesn't understand the level of power he's dealing with he's putting every life on this planet in serious danger."

Faith closed her eyes again and seemed to struggle with something in her mind. "I'm... I'm going to free you." she said after a moment. "I'll take you to Valor. You can try and convince him, you might have better luck than I."

18 watched as the woman moved around behind her and out of sight. Then she felt a pressure on the back her neck, then a sudden rush of coldness, and then the pain in her head, neck, and back vanished. She raised her head slightly, braced for the rush of pain she'd gotten every time she tried that before, but felt none. She raised her head all the way up and looked above her. Now she could see the chains that hung from the ceiling, the metal cuffs that encircled her wrists. With a just a simple tug she ripped the chains from their foundations and started to fall.

Her fall turned into a gentle descent an instant later and she touched down on the floor softly, she could feel her power back again, control her energy once more. Then, raising her arms in front of her, she smashed her wrists together cracking the metal and breaking the cuffs. Then, leaning down, she tore the restraints from her ankles. "Much better." she said. Even her throat felt better. Turning she saw Faith watching her, wide eyed, and a small metal device in her hand. "What the hell is that thing, anyway?" she asked, nodding toward it.

"It's... it's an Energy Inhibitor." Faith said. "Valor developed them about four months ago. He wanted to be able to capture our attackers so that he could get information on the Empire but he didn't want to risk them escaping."

18 held her hand out for it and Faith handed it over. Looking down she saw that it had five needles, each at least half an inch long, on the bottom side. The rest of the device was a small half sphere, smaller than a golf ball. "This tiny thing was able to hold me?" she wondered. She'd never seen technology like it before. "Do you know how it works?"

"It produces its own energy, feeds it into the body of the person it's attached to, disrupts their own energy flow." said Faith. "Normally the person is unconcious so long as it's running at full power, and only barely concious otherwise."

Faith's use of normally implied to 18 that it had been running at full while attached to her. "How long was I out, anyway?"

"You arrived about four days ago."

18 pursed her lips as she stared at the device, she was still stiff and sore but not nearly as bad as she'd been while wearing the thing. Finally she walked over to the corner where her black body suit with its purple padding around the side and back of the neck lay and pulled it on. Then she slipped the device into a pocket and as she did she felt the capsule case she'd brought with her. Apparently they'd not bothered taking it. All the better, with her pod now in pieces she'd need one of the spares in the case to get back to Saiya. And once back she'd hand this, thing, over to Gero for examination. The fact that it had been able to restrain her so effectively had her worried.

"Alright, lead the way." 18 said. Faith nodded and walked over to the door which slid into the wall with a whoosh as she neared. The Cyborg followed and found herself in a spotless, empty, steel hall.

"Tell me about Valor." she said as they walked. "Why did he take over from Gallant?"

Faith sighed. "Gallant lead us from the beginning." she said. "He'd just been a normal civilian when the first group came, ten years ago. He lead a lot of people in the city to safety, down in the catacombs, and organized a lot of soldiers who'd gotten cut off from their commanders to protect them. After the Empire left he went into robotics, wanted to make our defenses stronger just incase the Empire came back. When it did... or I guess, when it seemed to, everyone looked to him and his new machines for protection. As the years went by he just sort of became the leader.

"He wasn't interested in a war, though. He never talked about defeating the Masters. All he wanted and all he talked about was defending Leberion. When his Model 12 units drove off the last group of attackers there were a lot of people who thought we should send out an army of them, take the fight to the Empire. Gallant wanted nothing to do with that, he just wanted them to leave us alone. Valor was the loudest voice of dissent, the strongest voice calling for an attack against the Empire.

"Gallant was worried that the population would divide, that we'd split apart and become easier targets for the next group of soldiers to come. So he ordered Valor out of the city, ordered him not to return. Valor left, with about a hundred supporters, and that was that... until ten months ago. Valor's Guardian and Paladin Battle Droids suddenly appeared, flying right for the city, and began attacking the Battle Droids that Gallant had stationed in the city for protection. It didn't take long before his machines were the only ones standing and he declared himself the new leader of the Resistance."

"And Gallant?"

"He's here, locked-up in one of the cells." Faith said. "I spoke to him, before coming to you. It was his suggestion that I talk with you."

18 stopped. "Is he near-by?" she asked.

Faith stopped as well and looked back. "Yes, why?"

"Can you take me to see him, first?"

"Uh, sure...." Faith said, not sure why 18 wanted to speak to Gallant. She started walking again and 18 followed. They'd made a few turns left and right and the Cyborg was certain she'd never find her way back to where they'd started at this point, not that she had any desire to do so, and hoped Faith knew where she was going as much as she seemed to.

"So, after Valor took over, what then?" she asked.

"He set everyone to work repairing and remodeling the factories to begin production of his Battle Droids." answered Faith. "A... a lot of people died during the first couple of weeks. Hard work and not much rest or food. Things have improved some but now the sky is always black with smoke and it is far too cold outside. It's not so bad in the plants, as you can tell, but outside is...." Her voice trailed off and she stopped again. 18 followed suit and watched as she approached another door that whooshed open.

18 looked in and saw a red skinned native sitting in one of the back corners, feet shackled and chained to the walls. His eyes widened at the sight of her. "Faith told me you were here, said you had come, but I was having trouble believing it until now." he said.

"You must be Gallant."

"I am. And I take it you wished to speak with me?"

"Faith, did you tell him what you told Valor?" 18 asked, looking back. The woman shook her head no and 18 nodded. "Alright then." she said, turning back to Gallant. "Here's the situation, the people who you've been fighting aren't with the Empire. They're not coming here on our orders."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I'm the first member of the Empire to be sent to this world in ten years." she said. "I don't know who they are or where they got their armors from, though considering they're antiques I've a few ideas, but they are certainly not from the Empire. I was sent here to put a stop to the Resistance here and that's what I tend to do, hopefully with as little bloodshed as possible. But from what Faith has told me that may not be possible, Valor refused to listen to or believe the evidence Faith showed him."

"Evidence?"

"Data, from her pod." said Faith. "I saw it all, everything that the Empire has on our world. Including the full orders given to come here. Only two were issued, the ones ten years ago and the ones now that have brought 18 here now."

Gallant sighed. "Valor is determined to have his war." he said. "I am not certain why, exactly. Many on Leberion want revenge for those lost, either in the first attack or those that followed, but most would not rush head long into a battle that will only cost more lives."

"Faith told me you were more level headed and reasonable than Valor." 18 said, smiling. "Not in so many words, but just the same. Anyway, I'm here because I could use your help."

"My help?" he asked.

"Yes. There's a very good chance Valor wont listen to a damn thing I say. One way or another the Resistance here needs to be stopped, for everyone's sake. And his Battle Droids must be destroyed, they're a danger beyond anything he or you can imagine. Which means I'll likely have to use force to get the job done."

"And you want me to resume leadership of the Resistance, what remains of it?"

18 nodded. "Calm them down, bring them into some sort of order again, and start trying to rebuild your world." she said. "And I'll leave you with a means of contacting the Empire, should these imposters ever turn up again. Master Vegeta will _not_ be happy to learn about them, believe me, and he'll be more than happy to wipe them out."

Gallant nodded. "I don't know why, but I do." he said.

18 nodded back as she walked over to him and broke the chains holding him. "Alright, find people you know are loyal and get to work. Start with evacuating the city. Do you think you can get everyone beyond the city limits in an hour?"

"Yes, I should be able to, why?" he asked, standing.

18 turned and started back toward Faith. "Because I rest better when I don't have the faces of the innocent dead haunting me." she replied. "If things go bad, anyone left in the city is forfeit."


	28. Treaty Attempt

_Chapter Twenty-eight - Treaty Attempt_

Gero came to a stop in the viewing room outside of the Chamber 21 sparring room. He'd checked around to find out where Kakkarotto was but, upon learning of his location, realized he really hadn't had the need. He was currently in Chamber 21 and Gero could tell it wasn't for a light work out. The flashing red light was on over the door and the screen beside it was displaying, in bright red numbers, 100G. The gravity generator was maxed out, one hundred times normal Saiya gravity. More than enough gravity to squash his own mechanical body, so he couldn't just walk in.

Instead he moved over to the viewing window and looked in. He could see streaks of gold and pink zipping around but not much else at first. But a moment later those inside slowed a little and Gero realized what was going on. Kakkarotto was testing the limits of his new fourth form by sparring against Vegeta, Gohan, and Buu at the same time. Vegeta was sweating and breathing hard, Gohan even looked a little worn, but both Buu and Kakkarotto still seemed in top condition. With a shake of his head the doctor reached out and hit the buzzer button to let them know someone was outside.

A moment later the red light went off, the numbers dropped back down to 1G, and the door opened. "Buu, where are you going?" Kakkarotto called as the pink creature exited the room, pushing its way past Gero.

"Bra said she give Buu cake after he done fighting." he replied. "Fighting make Buu hungry so Buu go find Bra and have cake."

There was a flash of gold and a laugh as Kakkarotto reverted to base, his own stomach grumbling in agreement with Buu. "Yeah, I guess we did push it pretty hard." he said.

"What are you talking about?" Gohan asked, reverting as well and shaking his head. "You don't even seem the least bit tired."

Kakkarotto shrugged. "I was getting to the edge there. That form's as hard to keep going as the third level, there's just more power to feed it with so it can last a little longer. But my reaction time was really going down there, I barely got around Veggie's last kick."

Gero forced himself not to smirk at the look that flashed across Vegeta's face at the nick name. From anyone else, even Gohan, it would have earned, at the very least, a punch to the face. But Kakkarotto was more than twice Vegeta's power, almost three times now that he'd obtained the fourth form. And it really wouldn't have made a difference anyway. Vegeta had tried to break the 'Veggie' habit years ago but it never stopped for more than a month. Eventually he just gave up, though it obviously still annoyed him.

"What's up?" Vegeta asked as they neared.

"I need to speak with Master Kakkarotto." Gero replied. "I've uncovered a few more things about Gohan's condition but I need some more information."

Vegeta just nodded and left. He had better control over his stomach than Kakkarotto but he couldn't deny that he was starving as well.

"What'd you find?" Gohan asked as Vegeta disappeared around a corner.

"More than 40% of your DNA is original, not from either of your parents." Gero replied. "A massive a mount of change, all in the last two years. The sequence allowing for it has been present since you were five, I see no way it could have been inserted directly into you. You lived in that village up until then, and then were out here after. There's also no trace of the DNA sequence in any of your relatives. Not in Kakkarotto, Chi-Chi, Goten, or Pan."

"What?" Gohan asked, confused. "How?"

"I have a theory that the information was inserted via a genetic carrier. A virus, bacteria, or a parasite." explained Gero. "Likely introduced to one of your parents and designed to bond with you in early development." He turned to Kakkarotto then. "Which brings me to why I had to speak with you. In order to get to the bottom of this I need to track down the time and place the carrier was put into you or Chi-Chi. Can you think of any time, any event, where it could have happened?"

Kakkarotto furrowed his brow. "I don't think so...." he said. "Something like that would have had to have been injected, right?"

"Quite likely." Gero said. "Though it could have been planted in food or water as well."

The Sai-jin shook his head. "No, I can't remember any...." he stopped and blinked. "Wait a minute...."

"What, do you remember something?" Gohan asked.

"No, not exactly. But that may just be the thing, the fact that I _can't_ remember it."

"Huh?"

Kakkarotto sighed. "There's a... span of time." he began. "About a week, I think, that I have no memory of at all."

"Interesting...." Gero said, pursing his lips. "I had no knowledge of this."

Kakkarotto shrugged. "It's never come up." he said. "And I've never really cared about it to find out before."

"When was this?"

"A few years before Gohan was born." he replied. "Shortly after killing Piccolo's father. A resistance fighter named Tien showed up at the palace I'd taken to living in and challenged me. He... actually managed to hurt me with his last attack, though it nearly killed him. I'd floated back up out of the pit his attack made and was going to finish him off. I transformed just as he passed out but a few seconds after that there was this... I dunno, a bright red light. Next thing I knew I was laying in a bed, Chi-Chi had found me washed up by a stream near her house."

Gero stood in thought for a moment. This missing span of time was certainly something, though he couldn't say for sure that it was connected. "How far from your palace were you?" Gero asked.

Kakkarotto shrugged. "Maybe thirty miles." he said.

"And this stream, did it pass by the palace?"

"No idea." he replied. "Chi-Chi might know."

Gero nodded. "Alright, I'll ask her."

XXX

Faith lead 18 through the rest of the cell block and to the entrance to the main area of the base. There she explained the way up to Valor's office and then went to help Gallant with the evacuations. 18 then moved back into a small alcove near the doors, sat down, and waited. She'd given Gallant an hour to clear the city as much as possible, she couldn't risk more time than that because who knew when her escape would be discovered. Once time was up she would proceed on to Valor's office and try to reason with him.

She waited out the time in silence, deep in thought. She'd forgotten to ask Faith about the powers that had appeared and vanished in the city earlier, something that was still bothering her. But, as concerned as she was about both those vanishing powers and the Energy Inhibitor device in her pocket, her mind kept wondering back to Saiya and the threat the Empire had been facing when she left that world. Four days she'd been on this world already, and a week it had taken to get here. Had Kakkarotto won in his fight against that... thing? Was Saiya still there? Was her daughter still alive? Was the Empire still there? Was there any reason for her to even be here?

She didn't know about the rest of them but she realized she knew the answer to the last one. There was a reason to be here, Empire or no Empire. Valor's Battle Droids were a threat, not just to her and her daughter and the Empire, but to the people of Leberion. Whether Valor wanted to believe it or not they were beyond capable of destroying the entire planet. With the man not fully grasping the power of the machines he'd created the accidental destruction of Leberion from a random ki blast was a highly probable occurrence. Though she still couldn't help but wonder if it would matter in the end. If, maybe just as she finished wiping out the Battle Droids, Buu would suddenly descend on the world and destroy it anyway.

With a sigh she stood up and stretched, time was up. It was time to go speak to Valor. Turning toward the door into the main part of the plant she scanned her eyes back and forth along the wall watching, not what her eyes saw, but what her scanners showed. So long as there weren't any 'invisible' powers inside the plant the way ahead was relatively clear. Ten, maybe twelve people lay in the path that Faith had told her to take. None of them were above 20 so none of them were fighters which meant, hopefully, there would be no resistance to her passing.

Opening the door she stepped through into the hall beyond. She could hear the whine and click and clang of machinery in the distance, the sound of more Battle Droids being made. As she walked and listened to that sound she tried to work out the best way to handle this, should Valor choose not to listen to reason. A direct confrontation with the Battle Droids was not a good idea. The weaker ones, the Guardian design as Faith had called them, those she could handle in fairly sizeable numbers. But the Paladin design would quickly overwhelm her with just a few. And apparently Valor had five functional Sentinel design Battle Droids as well. Dealing with just one of them would take most of her focus, dealing with all five at once would be impossible.

Her best option, then, would be to eliminate Valor as soon as he showed no signs of relenting his position and then blast the entire city into rubble. She hated that idea. She hated that it was her best option if these 'negotiations' failed. There were ten or twelve people just along this path. At least a hundred still inside the factory. Who knew how many left scattered about in the city. Seventy thousand was a lot of people to try and sort through and evacuate, even if only half of them were loyal to Gallant as opposed to Valor.

She didn't even know if Faith and Gallant had gotten outside of the city limits. Hell, she wasn't even sure if Faith had left the _plant_ yet. All those people, all those lives, all that blood.... Maybe if she had someone she could share her voice and demons with she'd be better at handling them all. All of the old demons, the two she'd already added here, those that could still follow on this world, and those that would follow on other worlds.

Trunks... Trunks would act sympathetic if she said anything to him but he'd not actually understand. He was far too much like his father, the scope of his sympathy barely reached beyond himself. And she could never open up like that with him, never confide in him about the voice that haunted her, the faces that tormented her, the blood she felt she could never wash off her hands. He was far too much of a Sai-jin for her to show any weakness around. And far too close to his father to show any instability around.

There was her brother, of course. She had gone to him more than once over the years when things had gotten to be too much for her. But she didn't like going to him because he had his own voice, his own faces, his own demons, his own blood. Sometimes she was envious of him, though. Maybe even jealous, because he had Pan. Pan was a lot different than her father or grandfather, and nothing like Trunks. 17 could confide anything and everything in her without any worries or concerns, could be himself, wholly and completely himself, around her. But there was no one else, no one in the entire universe, that she could talk to.

There was Marron now, of course, but 18 wasn't sure she could talk to her daughter about this, either. Maybe... it would help to soften her image with her daughter, help her to see she wasn't the monster she often seemed, that 18 feared Marron saw her as on some level. But she didn't want to burden her daughter with her demons and nightmares. Didn't want to admit to her all the death and destruction she'd caused. Especially since all of it, every person, every life, every drop of blood on her hands, had been for her sake. She didn't want to transfer _her_ faces, _her_ demons, and the blood that stained _her_ hands to Marron.

It was with a start that 18 realized she was standing outside the door into Valor's office. She'd not noticed a thing as she'd walked, too lost in thought and worry and her inner turmoil. She wasn't even sure if she'd walked by anyone during her walk, or how she'd actually found the office without paying attention to where she was or the directions Faith and Gallant had given her. Shaking herself, both literally and figuratively, mentally and physically, she forced away everything but the matter directly at hand. Tucked away her demons, locked up her compassion, and steeled herself for the possible future that waited beyond the steel door before her.

It took her a few seconds longer than normal to get herself together and ready for what was to come, but eventually her mind was once again fully focused on the task at hand. Her determination to protect her daughter, and as many of those on Leberion she could, was back in place. And the shaking she'd not even noticed she was doing until it had stopped, ceased. Reaching out a hand she gave the door a light shove and pushed it open, snapping the engaged lock intended to keep the door shut. Those in the office instantly turned at the sound of the loud cracking and their multi-faceted eyes widened in shock.

18 quickly noted the location and power of each person in the room while simultaneously scolding herself for not checking before entering. There were six of them in all, Gallant easily discernable by being the only one in battle armor. Three of the other five were female. One of the women and one of the men wore urban combat fatigues. One man and one woman wore a long white lab coat. The third woman, the one standing closest to Valor to the point she was practically hanging off of his arm, was in what appeared to be basic civilian clothing. The strongest person in the room was the woman in the combat fatigues, power of 222. She only vaguely noted, somewhere in the back of her mind, that it was the highest power she'd scanned on the entire planet, prior to her landing.

"Valor, I presume?" 18 said, crossing her arms. She knew it was stupid, but for some reason she felt a little less imposing than normal due to the loss of her battle armor. The shock that had come over the room at her sudden appearance quickly turned into fear and anger, depending on which face you were looking at. The two scientists were scared, their faces losing several shades of color, the woman red and the guy purple. The two soldiers, a purple woman and blue guy, and Valor, who was red, were pissed, gaining several shades of color. The civilian 18 couldn't even see anymore, she'd left out a squeal and collapsed to the floor behind Valor's desk. "We have a few things to discuss."

"How the hell did you...." Valor began, but then his eyes widened. "She... that... damn it!" he cried.

"Unlike you, she's trying to save lives." 18 said calmly. It was clear Valor had already figure out the cause of her freedom. "She's hoping to end this peacefully. She told me she already explained everything...."

"I'm not falling for your lies." Valor said sternly. "You may have been able to trick her but I wont be deceived."

"Funny, it looks to me like you've been deceived pretty damn well for the last ten years." 18 countered. "As Faith explained, and as the data from my pod showed, there hasn't been an Imperial soldier on this planet in ten years. You've been dealing with imposters, not Imperial soldiers."

The anger on the face of the woman with the planet's highest power level vanished and was replaced by confusion as she turned to look at Valor. "What is she talking about?" she asked.

"She's talking about her attempt to trick us." Valor replied. "Claims that the Imperial soldiers we've been fighting, wearing Imperial battle armors, were not actually from the Empire."

18 could hear the derision practically dripping off of his voice as he spoke. "If wearing battle armor created by the Empire makes someone an Imperial soldier than I guess you work for the Empire as well." said the Cyborg dryly. She then turned her focus from Valor to the soldier woman who seemed more interested in hearing what she had to say. Maybe if she couldn't get through to Valor himself she could take his support out from under him.

"Ten years ago Dr. Gero ordered a science team to come here for a planetary study." she explained. "Eight soldiers were sent along as escorts. Following the planet study Gero's curiosity was apparently sated and the world quickly forgotten by the Empire. Due to various reasons this world is of no use or value to us. No member of the Empire has been sent to this world since that science team left until I arrived. I don't know who you've been dealing with, but it isn't us."

"And you have proo...." began the soldier.

"There is no proof!" Valor yelled, slamming a fist against his desk with a sharp crack. "There's no proof because it's all lies!"

"No, there's no proof because you blew up my pod." 18 said, voice still calm and cool. "Faith showed you the files, the orders, all of it. All of it highly restricted information, I might add. And you, hell bent on your damned war, blew the pod up so that no one else could see it. So that no one else would know that you're destroying this planet, and putting everyone here at risk, for no damn reason."

"No reason!?" demanded the male solider. "We've lost thousands to Imperial attacks! Killed or captured."

"No, you've lost thousands to raiders pretending to be Imperials." corrected the Cyborg. "The Empire has no need, reason, or desire to attack you or kidnap your people."

"Oh, is that so?" sneered Valor. "No reason to attack us? Then why are you here, hmm? On vacation, perhaps?"

The smug look on his face, like this argument was fool proof and there was nothing in the universe that could possibly refute it, made 18 want to smack him. Hard. But she resisted the urge and kept her face and voice calm. "I'm here because your Battle Droids have been attacking Imperial bases. I'm here to shut down Battle Droid production, that's all. I'd have liked to have done it without any casualties, I'd prefer to do it without any more than have already occurred."

Valor snorted. "You don't honestly expect us to buy this crap, do you?" he asked.

18 could tell that he didn't believe a word that she'd said, or rather, refused to believe, and that he'd never believe her even if she left the planet and came back with the supposed Imperial soldiers and they told him who they really were. She could also tell that he firmly believed none of those with him believed a word she was saying either. But she could see that he was just as mistaken in this as he was in his belief that she was lying. The two scientists looked conflicted, like they were willing to believe it was possible but not yet convinced. The male soldier's face was unreadable but the woman clearly thought 18's explanation, limited though it was, was plausible. It looked like she might just be able to pull this off if she worked carefully from here.

"You don't have to believe me at face value." 18 said. "Shut down your plants, halt the production of your Battle Droids and talk directly with the rest of the Masters. Master Vegeta will be more than interested in knowing about your raiders, and more than happy to station someone in system to wipe them out if they come back."

"Stop production?" Valor laughed. "Leave ourselves defenseless for the next Imperial assault? Do you take us for idiots?"

"No, I take _you_ for a complete ass too stupid to tie his own shoes." 18 said. "I take the four of _them_ as intelligent enough to think for themselves and realize you're a complete ass too stupid to tie his own shoes."

She almost didn't see it. Almost didn't notice in time. She caught a vague shimmer of movement reflected in the black faceted eyes of the male soldier, a sudden shift and nervous flinch from the female scientist. It took her a tenth of a second to process the two, another tenth to put them together, and then half of a tenth to move a foot to her left letting the large metal fist sail harmlessly through empty air. Exactly where her head had just been. Turning to look into the hall she got her fist glimpse of a Sentinel design Battle Droid. "Fucking _hell_."

XXX

Faith had left Gallant to tend to the evacuation after about twenty minutes. It hadn't taken them too long to locate people, both in the plant and in the city beyond it, that were more than willing to help the former Resistance leader. Valor's near insane push to build his Battle Droid army, and his extreme fanaticism, had earned him far more dissenters than Faith had ever realized. Apparently quite a few people thought Valor was obsessed and willing to kill them all for even the smallest chance of killing the Masters.

Still, evacuating the city _quietly_ was proving a little more difficult than Gallant had expected. Well, no, clearing out the city itself was pretty easy. Those who'd sided with Gallant and not liked or trusted Valor, and thus either left the Resistance or been expelled from it, where the main occupants of the outside city. They needed nothing more than to be told that Gallant was free and he was calling for everyone to leave the city before packing up all of their things and doing just that. It was those in the plants, those who agreed with Valor on some level, some who were just as fanatical as him, that were the issue.

They needed to be avoided. Avoided completely. No suggestions of leaving, of evacuating. No hints that 18 was free again. No hints that Gallant was free now. No clues given that the people outside the plant walls, and even a number of those in the plants, were making a mass exodus out beyond the city limits. If _anyone_ loyal to Valor got wind of any of it they'd know _something_ was going on and it would limit 18's chances at a peaceful solution to things. Slim as Faith and Gallant thought those chances already were they didn't want to make them even slimmer.

Still, there was one person inside Plant One that Faith couldn't just leave behind. One person Faith knew wasn't just loyal to Valor but damn near devoted to him. Gallant knew, he could see it on her face and in her eyes, and as soon as they'd assembled a large enough group of supporters to aid him with the evacuations he'd told her to go. Go back to the plant and try. And so, forty minutes after leaving 18 and starting to clear out the city as much as possible in the given hour Faith found herself walking back into Plant One wondering just where the person she sought might be. She spent ten minutes looking but didn't find them. They found her.

"Is it true?" a voice asked from behind Faith.

Faith turned and found herself staring at an almost perfect reflection of herself. The primary difference being that the reflection's horn was even more damaged than her own, the top two thirds completely absent. The other clear difference was that the reflection wore urban combat fatigues instead of a lab coat. "Is what true?" Faith asked, both relieved and anxious. There wasn't much time left on the time limit 18 had set.

"The rumors I've been hearing." the other said. "The ones that say you actually tried to convince Valor to let the bitch go."

_"Ah"_ Faith thought. She should have known, there had been a fair number of people around when she'd first approached Valor. Of course someone had over heard them. And gossip like that would spread quickly. No wonder she'd been getting odd looks ever since coming back into the plant. "Yes." she said at last. "I did."

"Why the hell would you do that?" the woman demanded, scowling. "You don't free murderers, you execute them." The woman smirked. "A pleasure I've landed the privilege of."

"I... you... what?" Faith asked, her mind suddenly seemed to be working in slow motion.

The other woman's smirk grew. "Valor said I could execute the bitch." she answered. "Not sure how I'm gonna do it yet, though. Think I might just gut her like a fish. I was on my way to report to Valor before the execution when I heard the rumors, figured I'd see what the hell you were thinking before I talked to him. So, what the hell _were_ you thinking?"

Faith couldn't find any words for a moment. Her mind was still working in slow motion and it seemed, also, to be having trouble processing a major incongruity, some odd warping of reality. Not even an hour ago she'd been speaking to a _Master_ who honestly seemed to regret having to kill anyone. And now she was standing here with one of her own, with her near double, her own _sister_, who was talking about gutting someone like a fish. As the oddity of it settled in the actual meaning of her sister's words also finally settled and Faith felt her stomach suddenly flop and twist.

She knew her sister was bitter and vengeful but to hear her call it a pleasure and a privilege to kill someone.... Even when she'd believed the Empire responsible for the attacks Faith wouldn't have considered murder, even of a Master, to be a pleasure or privilege. It took her mind several seconds to finally get back into normal gear and it took her several more to be sure she wasn't going to vomit when she opened her mouth. She spent the time standing there with her eyes closed and breathing slowly, carefully. Finally she opened them again and looked right into her sister's eyes.

"I was thinking I want this to end." she said. "I was thinking I don't want anyone else to die...."

"You've got a funny way of showing it." her sister interrupted. "We release her and that's the end of all of us. Sliced up nice and neat like Serenity and seven of my comrades."

Faith shook her head. "No, Hope. Not if we don't fight."

"Don't fight!?" Hope cried, obviously outraged at the idea. "How can you even suggest that after what we saw those... those... animals do to our mother!? To our friends?"

"That wasn't the Empire." Faith said.

Hope blinked. "Not the Empire?" she said slowly. "Of course it was the Kai damned Empire! We fucking _saw _them!"

Faith shook her head. "No, we saw people wearing battle armor. But I've seen the records, the Empire's own official records on our world, including all related mission orders to come here. The first group that came, they were from the Empire. The ones who've been attacking since then aren't."

"The fuck they aren't!" Hope yelled. People were starting to slow in their work, turning to look to see what was going on, but Hope ignored them. "Who the fuck do you think wears that armor?" she demanded.

"I saw the orders, Hope." Faith said. "And 18 said that armor style, the kind that Valor's got, isn't used by the Empire anymore. Not for decades now."

"Oooooh, 18 says." Hope said sarcastically, nodding. "On a first name basis with the bitch now, are we? So, what, you're going to believe that lying, murdering, disgusting _whore's_ word over your own damned eyes?"

"I told you, I saw the files, too." Faith said. "I didn't just take her word, I checked her evidence before I went to Valor. She was honestly confused when I mentioned the attacks."

"You are so fucking gullible." Hope said, shaking her head.

Faith opened her mouth to respond to that but froze. Her watch had just started beeping. The hour was up. 18 was on her way to talk to Valor right now. At any minute he could refuse to listen to her and leave her with no choice but to destroy the plant. Maybe even the entire city. Fear gripped her for a moment, she wasn't sure she'd be able to make it out of the city in time. And she still had to try and convince Hope to leave with her. Swallowing she pushed the fear aside, she had to focus if she wanted to get out of the city before the violence broke out.

"I'm not gullible." she said at last. "You're just pig headed, like father."

_CRACK._

Faith hadn't even seen it coming but she sure as hell felt it. The backhand had knocked her onto her side and dazed her. It hadn't nearly been Hope's full power, her sister's full power would have been enough to knock her head right off her shoulders, but it had been a significant portion of it. Just enough not to do any serious damage.

"Don't. You. Dare." Hope growled slowly, through her teeth, as her jaw was clenched tightly shut.

Faith could feel the burning sting of tears threatening to surface. Not from the physical pain of the blow but the emotional pain. Part of her knew she deserved it for what she said but another part felt it was a fair and accurate comparison, and all of her was hurt that her sister would actually hit her. "Well, wouldn't he be proud of you now." Faith spat, even though she knew it was a mistake before she even opened her mouth. She could see Hope visibly shaking with her anger now but, before anything else could happen between them, there was a sudden explosion from elsewhere in the plant that knocked Hope off of her feet and onto the floor beside her sister.

Faith's eyes widened as she turned toward the sound of the explosion. She couldn't see any of the effects from where she was, or the cause, but she knew what it likely meant. She'd been so shocked by the backhand she'd taken that she'd completely forgotten that 18 was having her meeting with Valor. Apparently he'd turned down her offer. Time was up. She had to get the hell out of the city, now. And backhand or not she wanted to try and have Hope come with her. Shaking, she slowly climbed to her feet and found Hope already standing and holding a hand to her ear to better hear the reports coming in through her ear piece.

"Hope." Faith started but her sister waved her to be quiet. "No." she said, getting a scowl. "Hope, we have to leave. It's not safe here now, we have to get out of the ci...." Her voice trailed off as she saw the darkening in Hope's eyes.

"What did you do?" she asked quietly, a sharp and dangerous edge to her voice.

"The only thing I could." Faith replied, closing her eyes for a moment. "I'm tired of all of this fighting, I want it to end."

Hope swallowed and the dark look in her eyes faded some as they widened in shock and fear, and Faith thought she saw disgust, too. The last emotion hurt her but also angered her. After all, she hadn't been the one talking about gutting someone like a fish. She was the one who had tried to end things without any more deaths. The widened eyes only lasted for a moment, though, and then Hope was back into soldier mode, an angry scowl on her face. "You fucking released her, didn't you?!" she cried.

"Are you coming or not?" Faith asked, half turning toward the exit. She watched Hope long enough to be sure her sister wasn't going to leave with her and then sighed and turned the rest of the way around. "I'll see you later, then." she said. But she never got the chance to even start walking away. As soon as she'd turned her back to her sister she felt powerful hands grab her and slam her down onto the floor.

Hope pinned Faith's arms behind her and held her firmly against the ground. "You're not going anywhere." she said, her voice angrier than Faith had ever heard it. "You're under arrest for treason, and given your confession I don't see any reason to wait for a trial." With that she yanked her back up onto her feet and turned toward the crowd that had formed around them. "Get me some rope!"

XXX

The Sentinel designs looked nothing like the other two designs she'd seen. They looked like very big people. Leberion native type people, yes, but people. The one she was staring down right now was eight foot tall, had shoulders at least five feet across, and its fists were at least as big as her head. Maybe slightly larger. The entire thing was gun metal gray, save the glowing yellow eyes. She'd been hoping to avoid fighting any of these things at all so finding one right behind her like this was very unpleasant. _"At least there's only one... for now."_ she thought. _"I'll have to try and destroy it, fast, before back-up starts arriving."_

"I wont make the same mistake twice." Valor said from where he still stood behind the desk. "This time I'll just have them kill you."

18 listened to him, but only barely. She was more concerned about the Battle Droid than him. _"Now I know how everyone who's fought me must have felt."_ she thought, scowling at the machine. There was no ki level for her to track, she'd have to rely entirely on her eyes for this battle. Not too much of an issue with just one opponent but if a second showed up it could become a problem. If a third, fourth, or fifth showed it would definitely become a problem. Brushing those thoughts aside she thrust her arms forward firing of a blast of purple energy at the machine.

The energy blast only had about two and a half feet to travel. The Sentinel didn't have time to react to the incoming attack and the blast hit it square in the chest before exploding. 18 plunged into the dust cloud as she heard the loud thud of the machine slamming into the wall of the hall. An instant later she was on top of it and thrusting an arm at its head. The machine slid to the right slightly at the last second and her punch slammed into the wall instead, her arm going in up to her elbow. Her other arm came up and blocked a punch and then she ripped her right arm out of the wall as she kicked the Battle Droid in the abdominal area.

Of course, being a machine, there was no abdomen to actually hit. No diaphragm to force closed. No air to force out. But the impact still forced it to stumble backward. 18 then brought an arm up and quickly formed another Destructo Disc. With a cry she pitched it forward, intending to remove the Battle Droid's head, but her eyes widened as the disc hit, warped, and then shattered. Her shock delayed her reaction time and its massive left fist slammed into her face knocking her down the length of the hall and through a wall before she could pull to a stop.

She heard panicked cries behind her and looked back to see a bunch natives, all in civilian clothes, running to the opposite side of the room. And then she noticed the bright red glare and looked back toward the hole in the wall, eyes going wide. "SHIT!" she cried, thrusting her arms forward quickly. The Battle Droid had fired off a massive energy blast at her, there was no way the people in the room would survive if she didn't at least deflect the blast force away from them. The energy blast slammed into her energy shield a second later and exploded, eliciting more screams from those behind her and destroying what had been left of the wall.

_"What the hell?"_ she wondered. _"It could have killed all of them...."_ She shook it off and looked behind her. "Go!" she yelled. "Get out of here!" A few of them scrambled for the door but most of them continued to huddle by the back wall. She was about to yell at them again when a knee suddenly slammed into her stomach snapping her eyes wide in pain. _"Damn it, focus on the fight!"_ she mentally ordered herself as she drifted off the knee and then snapped her leg into the side of the machine's head. Twisting in the air she then snapped her other foot out into its chest driving it back out into the hall.

She started to chase after it but just as she emerged into the hall a large metal fist smashed into the side of her head and sent her sailing down another hall instead. She pulled herself to a stop before slamming into any walls this time and scowled at the Sentinel charging toward her. She'd still seen the one she'd been fighting in the hall before this one hit her which meant she was now dealing with two of the things. Charging at the new Sentinel she ducked under a right hook and slammed her own right fist into its chest followed by her left, then her right again, her left, her right, and then her left one last time.

The series of blows knocked the machine down the hall where it slammed into the first one. 18 fired a blast of purple energy at the two machines and then turned off down the hall again to where Valor's office was at it exploded. She reached it a moment later but found it now empty of Valor. She could only see one occupant, the female soldier, but she was knelt down by the desk saying something in a quiet voice, and 18's scanner was picking up a second power. The Cyborg turned and slammed the door shut behind her. They couldn't track her for the same reason she couldn't track them and she needed time to think. The slamming door got the attention of the soldier and she looked up, eyes widening.

"I'm not going to hurt you." 18 said, walking away from the door and toward the woman. "Not unless you give me a reason to. Where's Valor?"

She shook her head. "I don't know."

"Don't know or wont tell?"

"Don't know." she said, and then sighed. "Apparently he doesn't want me around anymore since I suggested there might be something to what you said."

18 snorted. "I think I gave him too much credit. He's too stupid to even pull his shoes _on_, forget about tying them." The Cyborg reached the desk then and looked down to see who the soldier had been talking to. It was the civilian woman from before, the one that had been almost hanging off of Valor's arm. "She ok?" she asked. The woman was shaking and crying, though 18 had no idea why. The soldier stared at her for a moment, as though the Cyborg were some unknown creature that had just suddenly wondered in and asked for directions to its own house. 18 was rather used to such looks, she got them on a lot of her missions.

"She'll be fine." the woman said at last. "Your sudden appearance scared her and then...." she trailed off.

"Then... then he s-said... said he never wa-wanted to... to see s-someone as... we-weak as me... e-ever again."

18 scowled. _"Typical."_ she thought. _"Mucho bull headed male."_ She shook her head. "Well, it wouldn't have worked out for you anyway." she said. "Not now."

The soldier looked back up at her again. "You intend to kill him?"

"Well, he's not exactly giving me much choice in the matter." she replied, glancing back at the door to make sure neither Sentinel had found her yet. Looking back to the soldier she continued. "What do you know about the programming of those Battle Droids?" she asked.

"Not much, why?"

"Because one of them nearly fried a room full of your own people just to get a hit on me." 18 replied. The soldier's eyes widened in shock at that. "What's your name?"

"Zeal." the soldier said. "And this is Harmony."

18 glanced back at the door again, still closed, before saying anything else. "Zeal, take her and get out of here. Out of the city. Gallant's already been evacuating for the last hour."

"Gallant?" Zeal asked, surprised. "You... really were serious, weren't you? About wanting to avoid as many deaths as possible?"

"Just go." 18 said, turning back toward the door.

"D-don't...." Harmony whimpered, bringing her head up at last.

It was the first real good look 18 got at her and, while she wasn't an expert on the natives, she figured the red skinned woman... no, the _girl_, couldn't have been more than fifteen. _"She's just a kid."_ was what she thought, "Don't what?" was what she asked.

"Don't... k-kill him." she begged.

18 closed her eyes and sighed. "Sorry. It's out of my hands now. Besides, I'm sure you can do a hell of a lot better than that jack ass."

"What was that?" Zeal suddenly cried. 18 looked over at her, confused, but then saw her with a hand pressed against her ear. Apparently she had some sort of earpiece in place. "They're going to do _what_?" she demanded. "Who is it?" Silence. "Shit."

"What? What's going on?" 18 asked.

"It seems word is out not only about you being loose but that Faith set you loose." Zeal said. "And her sister's organized a group to hang her." The soldier instinctively flinched as the Cyborg's eyes suddenly narrowed and darkened.

"Where?" she demanded.

"Out in the work area, near the front of the building." Zeal raised an arm and pointed off to the left of the door. "That way."

18 nodded, turned, and walked from the room blasting the door off its hinges with a pair of eye beams along the way.

XXX

Faith wasn't really sure what to feel. Her emotions were changing wildly, never settling on any one thing for more than a few moments. Her first reaction had been disbelief. Disbelief at the entire situation. She'd gone from preparing to leave to on the floor to being yanked roughly to her feet to being held still under one of the large steel beams that reached across the room from wall to wall, all in less than five minutes. The fact that her sister was the one holding her, the one calling for her the be hung, was what really made the whole thing surreal.

The disbelief had then turned into anger. Anger at herself for getting into this situation. Anger at the raiders for their contribution to her predicament. Anger at the crowd around her for wanting her dead when she'd been trying to save all of them. Anger at her sister for leading this mob, for calling for her death in the first place. Then anger had faded into fear, into terror, as she saw one of the other lab workers, one of her friends, come into her field of vision holding a large bundle of rope. She'd heard the cries, once Hope had shouted to the room what Faith had done, cries for her death.

The fear, the panic, the terror had built quickly as she watched the scientist, her friend, hand the rope over to another soldier who then flew up to the rafters and tossed it over to hang down both sides. They weren't even going to do it properly. Drop her so that her neck broke. They were going to hoist her, let her struggle and suffocate. One end had already been tied into a noose and Hope was currently placing it around her sister's neck. That's when the fear changed into despair. Despair over her impending death. Despair that it would be her own sister who would kill her. Despair that she hadn't been able to convince more people, convince her sister, to evacuate.

And then she felt the tug. The noose pulled tight around her neck, the rope pulled taut, and then her neck was being pulled, her heels were lifting off the floor, she was already having trouble breathing, then she was on just her toes, and suddenly she as hanging by the rope around her neck and could get no air at all. She raked her eyes over the crowd around her and cried, cried for herself and for her friends and for her sister. Her body told her to struggle, to fight, to try and breathe, but her mind told her there was no chance of that. Her hands and legs were bound, her sister was holding the rope so that she'd stay suspended. All fighting would do was burn through her air faster, kill her faster, and while it'd make it quicker and less painful she didn't want to die, she wanted to cling on to whatever life she could still manage.

The world was just starting to go dark, her eyes to droop, when she heard the thundering explosion. She suddenly felt herself drop a little, then more, and then her feet were on the ground again and the noose wasn't biting into her neck anymore and she could breathe. Glorious, cold, crisp air rushed into her lungs and the dimming at the edges of her vision receded. The crowd around her, she saw, wasn't moving. They were just standing there, staring at her. No, not her, behind her, at her sister. Faith turned but found it wasn't her sister, either, that they were staring at. It was 18. Hope lay at 18's feet with a split lip, but still alive, still conscious, and scowling up at the pair of them.

18, however, was ignoring the downed woman and was untying the noose from around Faith's neck. "You ok?" she asked.

Faith nodded, her mind finally grasping what had just happened. The explosion, 18 had blasted her way through the plant to get to her. She'd rushed in, knocked her sister out of the way, and lowered her back to the ground. Saved her. The last little nagging doubts in her mind, the ones that had forced her to react so badly to Hope's words earlier, finally vanished. If the Cyborg hadn't meant what she'd said before then she wouldn't have rushed to her rescue now. "Thank-you." she said as the noose came off.

18 shrugged. "You saved me." she said. She then turned from Faith and glared down at the woman on the ground. Hope glared right back up at her. "Your sister, I presume?"

"I... yes, how...?"

"Zeal told me what was going on." 18 replied.

"Commander Zeal!?" Hope cried. "What did you do to her?!"

"Nothing." 18 replied. "She heard what was going on and told me, that's all."

"Nonsense! Commander Zeal would never betray us!"

"Valor's the one who's betrayed you." said 18. Hope opened her mouth to counter but 18 narrowed her eyes and the woman's words stuck in her throat. "When Zeal suggested that what I had to say was plausible he basically told her to get lost. While I was fighting a Sentinel Battle Droid it launched an energy blast right into a room full of your people, willing to kill them all just to hit me. Valor doesn't care about you or Leberion, he just cares about himself and his own vendetta against the Empire. Everyone and everything else be damned." She'd slid her gaze over the crowd as she spoke.

Hope snorted. "And I suppose you want us to believe you do?"

"I care about my family." 18 said, locking her eyes back on Hope's. "My daughter, who has even less power than Faith here. I care about keeping her safe, safe from anything that could threaten her. Anything that threatens the Empire threatens her. I don't want to kill if I don't have to but I wont lie, I'll blast this entire city, and everyone in it, into dust if that's what it takes to end this, to keep her safe. I'd turn this entire planet into dust if that's what it took." She'd seen eyes in the crowd going wider and wider as she spoke. "I don't want to, I don't intend to, I just want to remove the threat and the only threats are Valor and his Kai damned Battle Droids."

18 turned her gaze from Hope to the crowd again. They were all listening to her every word and she knew she'd not get a better chance than this. "I don't know if Faith had a chance to tell any of you before you tried to _kill_ her." she said. "But it's not the Empire you've been fighting. Yes, we came ten years ago, but we haven't been here since. Your attackers, your raiders, are someone else. Someone we hadn't known about. After this is over I'll be leaving the survivors a means of contacting the Empire, should your attackers come back. Someone will be sent to deal with them.

"The Empire has no interest in this planet. It has no value to us. I wont deny that there will be an interest now, now that your Battle Droids have come as far along as these Sentinel ones have. An interest in making sure that no more are built. But there's no reason to continue the fighting, not against the Empire. Once the Battle Droids are gone, and so long as they stay gone, the Empire will leave you alone." She shook her head. "Stay here, continue the fighting, and all you'll do is ensure your deaths."

"Gallant is already doing evacuations of the city." came a new voice. Everyone turned and found Zeal walking toward them, Harmony clinging to her and still sobbing. "The city is almost empty now. I've got some of my troops evacuating the other plants of those who are ready for all this fighting to end. Those willing to hope there wont be any more needless death, those willing to believe what 18 says. Those of you who feel the same should start making your way out as well, Gallant's setting up a refugee camp just beyond the city limits up to the north."

"You... can't be serious...." Hope said, softly, slowly. "You want us to surrender? To just roll over and let the Empire walk all over us?"

"Haven't you been paying attention?" 18 asked. "Your problem isn't the Empire."

"So you say." Hope spat. "But I've no reason to believe you. I've got ten years of personal experience fighting them, that's all the proof I need."

18 closed her eyes and sighed.

"If she were lying why would she be evacuating the city?" asked Faith. "Why try and save anyone at all? She's even giving Resistance members the chance to leave. If she's not telling the truth then what's the point? Wouldn't all of this just start right back up as soon as we were attacked again? And why give us a way to contact the Empire to tell them we're being attacked if it's the Empire doing it?"

18 could hear mutterings in the crowd. Some of them, she could tell, saw the reason and truth in Faith's words. Others simply didn't want to. Like Hope, lying there on the floor, glaring up at 18. The Cyborg could see it in her eyes, even as odd and alien as they were. Somewhere inside her Hope knew Faith was right. Somewhere inside her she realized it. But she didn't want to admit it, didn't want to admit that she'd been wrong. Not just because she was stubborn, like Valor, but because she didn't want to face what that meant, especially not what it meant about what she'd just tried to do.

"She doesn't care." 18 said, sadly. "She's been fighting so long, so convinced of what was going on, that she doesn't care what the truth is, she just wants to cling to what she believes." She turned to Faith then. "She wont go with you. I don't think she'll even bother to get back up off the floor, just lay there and wait for the building to come down around her."

Faith looked down at her sister and saw the other woman turn her head, cast her eyes to the floor, and she knew then that 18 was right. The Resistance had been everything to Hope. It had been her entire reason for being. Without it, without that purpose, she no longer felt she had a reason to live. "Oh... Hope...." Faith said, barely above a whisper. She knelt down beside her and hugged her. "I'm sorry. Sorry about everything, sorry I compared you to father."

"Go." she said, still not lifting her gaze from the floor. "Get out of here."

Before anyone had the chance to move, however, there was a sudden shuddering explosion from above. "Damn it!" 18 cried, thrusting her arms up and firing off a massive stream of energy quickly incinerating the falling debris before the collapsing roof crushed everyone around her. As she lowered her arms she felt pain lance up through her back from a kick. The Sentinels had found her again. "GO!" she yelled, stumbling forward and then turning to face the machine. "Get out of here!"

The crowd didn't need to be told again and rushed for the doors. Faith stayed with Hope, however. "Go." her sister said. "Go on."

"I... I can't leave you here." Faith said quietly. "You're the only family I have left."

The two turned and looked at the sound of a loud crack and saw 18 half implanted into some of the construction equipment and now there were two Sentinels in the room. "Faith, go." Hope said. "Leave me. Go on."

"No, I ca...."

"Go, damn it!" Hope cried, pushing her away. "What are you staying here for? I just tried to kill you!"

"I know but...." Faith shook her head. "You're my sister. I don't care. I don't want you to die." Faith walked back over to her, knelt down, grabbed her arm, and pulled her to her feet. "If you want me to leave then you're going to have to come with me." she said. Hope sighed and nodded and the two of them turned and ran for the exit.

_"Good."_ 18 thought as she saw them leaving out of the corner of her eye. _"There are only a few powers left in the building, probably all loyal to Valor. No reason to hold back now."_ And with that thought as she charged a purple ball of spinning ki, swirling blades of energy spinning around it in a dozen different directions. "Shredder Mine!" she cried, pitching it at the nearing Sentinels. The blast slammed into the machine in front of her, exploded, and flung it across the room into some of the machinery. _"The hell?"_ she thought as the second Sentinel came charging at her through the dust. _"That should have cut clean in and blown that thing into scrap metal. What the hell is going on?"_ 18 brought an arm up to block the incoming kick aimed for her chest and then gasped in pain as an elbow smashed down into the top of her head.

Her vision blurred for a moment and she stumbled, and then the kick smacked into her chest and drove her back through a series of conveyor belts before she could pull to a stop again. Her vision clearing her eyes widened as she just barely dodged around an incoming blast of red energy. "FUCK!" she cried, eyes focusing on the _three_ Sentinels now standing before her. Her situation was quickly going from bad to worse to desperate. There was still a chance, a small one but a chance, that she could take on the three of them at once. But if either of the other two popped up....

_"I need more room. Not much sunlight with all of that smoke but this should still have some punch to it."_ she thought, bringing her hands up in front of her face, fingers spread. "Solar Flare!"


	29. Running Out of Time

_Chapter Twenty-nine - Running out of Time_

As they reached the door out of the main area of the plant Faith heard 18 curse and pulled to a stop. Turning she saw that a third Sentinel had now arrived and joined the fight. She glanced back at Hope and was just about to turn back toward 18 again when there was a bright flash of light that nearly blinded her. By the time the glare finally faded away the woman was gone. The three Sentinels stood alone, staring up into the sky.

"She... retreated?" Hope asked, a bit shocked. "I knew that one of the Sentinels had captured her but... I hadn't thought that she would have this much trouble fighting them."

"Half of her power...." Faith said slowly, remembering her earlier conversation with 18.

"What?" asked Hope, turning her gaze from the sky, where the Sentinels had recently departed to, back to her sister.

"She said that the Paladins were at least half of her power." Faith explained. "The Sentinels are supposed to be twice the power of the Paladins. Which means...."

"They're as strong as her." Hope said, awed. She'd never dreamed that any of their Battle Droids would be capable of matching one of the Masters. Then she said something she couldn't believe came from her own mouth. "This is bad. At equal strength she'll have a lot of trouble fighting three of them at once. If the other two show up she wont stand a chance."

"And Valor will go right back to his war." Faith said, with a shake of her head. "And we'll all be dead." She closed her eyes and thought. There had to be something.... "That's it!"

"What's it?"

"We've got to get down into the lower basement levels. Basement level 7, actually."

"What? Why? Shouldn't we be getting out of the city?"

Faith shook her head. "You just said that 18 wont be able to beat them. It doesn't matter if we leave the city or not, if she loses we'll be dead within a few months, I'd bet, when the Masters retaliate in force. I'll be dead before 18's even cold."

Hope frowned, but didn't argue. She knew Faith was right. If Valor remained in power then his first act, after 18's death, would be Faith's execution. "But why the basement? What can we do there?"

"Stop them." Faith said, running from the room toward the stairs at the end of the hall. "The Sentinels aren't like the Guardian or Paladin units." she explained, her sister quickly catching up and running along beside her. "We couldn't shield the EM field generated by the power core enough to properly protect an on board computer system, they were always getting wiped within a few minutes of boot up. So we came up with a work around to the problem, we put the brain for the Sentinels outside of their bodies, in one of the labs down on basement level 7. The computer there does all of the thinking and operates the Sentinels remotely."

Hope blinked and then smiled. "I think I know where this is going." she said. "We stop that computer and the Sentinels are brain dead."

Faith nodded. "Exactly. The computer room isn't even guarded, we never saw a reason. It's not like any outside attackers would know about it." Hope nodded as they reached the stairs and started on their way down the seven flights to basement level 7, ignoring the loud explosions and shaking of the ground that kept occurring. Reaching the right floor Faith threw open the door and ran into the hall making a left at the first intersection, then skidded to a stop. "Then again...." she said.

Hope came to a stop right behind her and frowned. Three soldiers stood down the hall in front of one of the doors talking. The two of them hadn't been noticed yet but she wasn't sure how long that would last. "Looks like Valor anticipated something like this." she said. She then grabbed her sister's arm and pulled her back around the corner out of sight, before they were spotted.

Faith merely nodded. She should have figured, he knew someone had to have released 18, after all. "Do you know them?" she asked. "Could you get us past?"

"I can't tell from here, but I doubt they'd let me in." she said. "Anyone Valor would have left in charge of such an important location would be as devoted as him to the Resistance, and probably told to let no one through. So... now what?"

"Surprise attack?" suggested Faith. "Hit them before they see us?"

Hope bit her lip in thought. She couldn't believe she was helping a Master or considering attacking her own people. But she couldn't deny that her sister had made a lot of sense earlier, or that 18's actions only made sense if she were telling the truth. "If we're lucky it'll work." she said at last. "Stay here." With that she moved away from Faith and peered around the corner again. The three soldiers were still standing in the same place and still talking. Taking a deep breath she cupped her hands in front of her chest and began gathering a ball of white energy. The attack charged she stepped out around the corner quickly and shot it down the hall.

The soldiers saw it coming at the last second but didn't have time to react. The blast slammed into their midst and exploded blasting them into the walls and knocking them out. "Alright, we're clear." Hope said. Faith nodded to her and the two took off down the hall reaching the door to the lab a few seconds later. Hope motioned for her sister to wait in the hall as she pushed the door open and checked out the room. As soon as the door was open she froze in wonder and disbelief. "That's... the computer for the Sentinels?" she asked, looking back at her sister. Faith nodded.

Taking up the bulk of the thirty foot room, leaving only a walk way five feet wide going around the edges, was a large clear tube. Inside the tube was what Hope thought looked like a large metal cube, but it was spinning so fast in so many different directions it was hard to tell. There were arcs of energy tracing along the surface of the cube and the glass tube it was in side of, and not much else. It didn't look like any computer she'd ever seen before. "This is...."

"I know." said Faith. "I was impressed the first time I saw it, too."

"Wait, you didn't make it?"

"Me? No, I just did coding work with it. I don't know where it was made, actually. Valor brought it with him when he came back from his exile. Anyway, we've got to shut it down."

"I could blast it."

"I don't think that would be a good idea." Faith said, walking around the tube and gazing at the wall. "I didn't make it but I got to study it a good bit while working on the coding for the Sentinels. Its a rather volatile device, massive energy levels stored at all times. That's what the tube is for, to help contain the energy and make the room safe to be in. Try and just break it and you could make it overload. No idea how big an explosion that would be but I don't think we'd survive."

"Right. Well, brute force is out then, so I'm stumped. You've always been the brainy one."

Faith nodded slightly, only barely hearing her sister, as she gazed over the walls and floor looking for the pannel she knew was there, somewhere. Finally, about a third of the way around the room, she saw it on the wall. She gave it a hit and it popped loose and then slid up revealing a series of circuit boards and numerous wires. Reaching in she grabbed hold of the wires and gave them all a yank, pulling them free of the systems they were linked to. Then she began yanking out circuit boards. By the time the third board was out the arcing energy around the encased cube was subsiding.

At last she yanked out the tenth and final board. "Here, smash these." she said, tossing the ten boards over to her sister. Hope caught them, dropped them onto the floor, and then stomped on them. "Now the computer can't be restarted." said Faith as she watched the spinning cube begin to slow. "It'll take a few minutes, I think, before the charge is gone enough for the thing to stop working. Hopefully 18 will last that long."

"We done here, then?" Hope asked. The explosions from above had faded some but the occasional quakes seemed to be getting worse. She didn't want to be in the city if 18 decided the only way to win was to blast the whole place to kingdom come.

"Yeah, we're done. Let's get out of here." Faith said, walking past her toward the door again.

Hope nodded and turned to follow her, then froze. Faith had stopped as well. There was someone standing in the doorway. Someone they both recognized instantly.

XXX

18 shot up into the air as soon as the light started. It wasn't nearly as bright as she'd hoped it would have been, the smoke was apparently thicker than she'd thought. Still, it seemed to have been enough to distract the machines. She got into the sky above the plant without pursuit. She cast a quick glance around the area with her eyes for signs of more Battle Droids, and with her scanners for traces of powers. There was a large knot of powers heading north, likely the people Zeal was escorting to Gallant's location. There were also knots of powers in each of the plants, only Plant One was nearly empty. She also noted that Faith and her sister's powers were still inside the plant somewhere and she couldn't figure out why.

She pushed that aside for the moment, however, as she saw the three Sentinels surging up at her. She slipped around a punch from one, ducked under a kick from the second while also grabbing its leg. She then turned and used it as a bat to smash the third one back down toward the ground. Continuing around she then pitched it up at the first one hitting it in the back. She then shot up past the two of them, thrust her legs down, and smashed her feet into their heads driving them down toward the third which was now charging up at her.

She was quickly re-assessing her chances in the battle, though. Even as well as she was doing now she was doubting her chances at beating even one of these three, even if the other two didn't show up. She didn't know what they were made from but whatever it was it didn't seem to want to take damage. She was hitting these things with all she had but they didn't seem to be fazed at all. Sure, being purely mechanical they wouldn't take damage like a living creature would, like she would, but there should still be a noticeable difference between one that had just been hit and one that hadn't, and there wasn't.

Suddenly a barrage of energy blasts came surging her way from all three machines. She managed to deflect about thirty of the blasts, dodged another fifteen, but was still hit by at least twenty of them. As she pushed aside the stinging pain from the blasts and tried to see through the glare they'd created she suddenly swerved around another punch and then brought her arm up to block a kick but then the third Battle Droid suddenly appeared and smashed a fist into her face driving her back. She countered with a blast of energy as she pulled to as stop but the machine simply swatted it aside, caught up to her, and then smashed a fist into her stomach. Meanwhile the other two had flanked her and as she was recovering from the blow to the gut they smashed their fists into her back driving her face into the first one's knee.

The blow stunned her and her vision blurred but she lashed out with a punch and managed to catch one of them across the jaw. Meanwhile the other two attempted to slam her head between their legs but she'd already dashed away and their legs hit each other. Shaking her head to clear it she looked around to see where the third one had gone now and saw two of them charging her. She blinked, glanced back behind her, and then cursed again. There were four of them now. _"If the fifth shows up... fuck."_ she thought. _"If I could have just gotten rid of Valor, damn it. I don't think I could have taken three of them, there's no way I can handle four."_

She dodged around a blast of energy, swatted another at one of the charging machines, then slipped around a kick and slammed a fist into the Battle Droid's head. _"If the fifth shows up I wont have any choice, I'll have to retreat and contact Saiya. Have someone else come here and stop Valor. Damn it, I'll probably have to do that anyway at this rate."_ She'd just managed to avoid another kick to the head but then a fist slammed into her back and knocked her into an elbow to her chest. Then one of them grabbed her leg, spun around, and pitched her down at the ground.

She slammed, head first, into a street a few blocks away from Plant One. By the time she'd gotten back to her feet she had four blasts of red energy surging toward her and all she could do was put her arms up to block. The attacks slammed into her and exploded savagely, blasting her back through five already damaged buildings and bringing the fifth one down on top of her. Pushing some of the rubble off and then climbing back up out again she wiped a trickle of blood off her mouth and cursed again. There was no way she was going to win against the four of them.

And then a foot slammed into the back of her head knocking her face first into the ground. She rolled to the side quickly as a fist lanced down and smashed into the ground where her stomach had just been. "And there's number five. Damn it!" she cried, quickly getting to her feet and surging backward, away from the five charging machines. "Sorry, everyone." she said, deflecting another energy blast away from her and then darting around a corner at an intersection to try and lose the Battle Droids. "I'm out of options here...." She ducked into another building, pressed her back up against the wall, and closed her eyes.

She'd just gotten a connection established when the arm smashed through the wall, wrapped around her neck, and then pulled her back into the machine's body. Reaching up she tried to pry the arm off of her but she couldn't get a good enough grip to pull it off before another of the machines appeared and slammed a fist into her stomach. Then a blow to her face, another to her stomach, one to her chest, two more to the face, another to the chest, and then another was coming in toward her face when the machine suddenly froze.

18 blinked, forcing away the pain and trying to make her head and eyes work properly again. Still the machine didn't move, just stood there, arm raised and ready for a punch. Reaching up she grabbed the arm around her neck and easily pulled it off. She wasn't sure what had happened but she wasn't going to let this chance get away. Thrusting her arms out she put them right against the chests of the two machines and fired point blank energy blasts clear through them. Stepping back out onto the street she saw the other three laying on the ground, also frozen. Apparently having fallen out of the sky. A few well placed blasts destroyed them, too, and she turned her attention back to Plant One.

"Time to find Valor and put an end to this." she said. "And maybe Faith knows what the hell just happened to these things." Checking her scanner she found Faith's power level of 12, Hope's 127 level, and a third almost on top of them at 188. "Fuck!" she cried, taking off at full speed for the plant. She'd only met one person with a level of 188 on the planet.

Valor.

XXX

"You...." Valor said slowly, quietly, as he stared at the two blue skinned women in the room. His gaze drifted from them to the spinning cube that was barely even spinning now. Then his focus returned to the two of them and he scowled. "I expected better from you, at least, Hope." he said. Faith blinked and looked back at her sister. She hadn't known Valor even knew her name.

"I came into the plant fully intent on killing 18." she said. Then she shook her head. "But I heard what she had to say and while I didn't want to believe it, while I'm still finding it hard to accept, I can't deny that it's possible. That it even makes sense, considering the effort she's going to, to protect the people in this city."

"Who cares if she's right?" Valor asked. "What does it matter? Does it change the fact that the Empire came here the first time? She even freely admits it was them!"

Hope closed her eyes. "I know." she said. "I know it was them but it was ten years ago, now."

"So what?!" Valor demanded. "Ten years, twenty years, a thousand years, what's it matter how long it's been! All that matters is that they came here, that they came here and killed our people! Seven hundred, dead, for nothing!"

"And how many have died because of you?" Faith asked. "Died when you came back and attacked the city to overthrow Gallant, died in the weeks after you got control of the Resistance when you pushed to rebuild the damaged plants, died since then because it's too cold for us to survive outside now because of all the smoke! I know at least five hundred were killed when you took over, at least three hundred died in the first two weeks after that, another hundred or two in the following four months. And that's not counting those forced to live in the city outside! You've killed more of our people than the Empire has. And I heard what 18 said upstairs. One of the Sentinels was willing to kill a room full of our own people just to hit her!"

"People die in a war." Valor replied, calmly. "Collateral damage is to be expected."

Hope's eyes snapped open again and she scowled. "Collateral damage!?" she yelled. "The purpose of the Resistance was to protect our people!"

"No! The purpose of the Resistance is to destroy the Empire!" Valor cried. "Nothing else matters. Nothing! What's it matter if a few people die so long as the Masters are destroyed?"

Hope swallowed. "You're willing to kill us all just to destroy them?" she asked, shocked. Despite having accepted what 18 had said about the Empire as being possible she'd not believed the woman about Valor. She couldn't. She knew him. _"No. I only _thought_ I knew him."_ she thought, fighting not to be sick.

"The price of victory." he answered. "I thought you understood that. What happened to that resolve of yours? Weren't you the one that was always telling me that you _lived_ for the day the Masters were all dead?"

"Not at the cost of more of our people." Hope said, quietly. "I was fighting to save us, first and foremost." She shook her head then. "I can't believe you'd sacrifice all of us for your revenge. You're no better than them. You make me sick."

Valor growled and scowled at her. "You're just as weak as Harmony." he said, disgusted. "Well, no matter. This isn't over yet. You may have stopped the Sentinels but I've still got my army. Five million Guardians and five million Paladins are waiting in the underground bunkers, I've already got those still loyal to the cause prepping them. With those numbers I'll still be able to kill her, then I'll remove all of the traitors and we'll get back to business." He raised an arm and pointed his palm toward the two women. "But before all of that I'll deal with the two of you."

Hope's eyes widened as she saw the spark of white energy around Valor's hand. She reached out, grabbed her sister's arm, and then yanked her back away from him and threw her behind her. Faith hit the wall, stumbled, and then fell with a thud, slightly dazed. When her mind cleared again her eyes widened. Hope was laying on the floor in front of her with a large hole through her chest. "Hope...." she said softly, dazedly, reaching a hand out for her sister. Her head snapped up as she heard a sudden grunt of pain and she saw Valor collapse to the ground, head flopping about oddly. His neck was broken.

She turned her gaze from the downed Valor back up to the door way and found 18 standing there, gazing down at her and Hope, and she could see the sadness in the woman's eyes. "Sorry I didn't get here faster." she said, walking toward them and kneeling down beside Faith. "I tried...."

Faith shook her head. "It's not your fault." she said. She laughed then, as she started to cry, and reached a hand out to close Hope's eyes. "She... saved me. Pulled me out of the way of Valor's attack." She smiled at her sister then. "Apology accepted." she said, barely above a whisper. Then she started climbing to her feet and tried to pick her sister's body up but 18 was already there lifting her. "I... thanks...."

18 nodded. "What is this place, anyway?" she asked.

"Computer control room for the Sentinels." Faith turned her gaze from her sister to the glass tube. "That thing was their brain."

"You shut it down?" she asked, and Faith nodded. "Then I, and everyone on this planet, owe you their lives." she said. "Come on, let's go find Gallant and let him know it's over."

Faith started to follow her out, glancing back at Valor on the way, but as she saw him she stopped. "It's not." she said.

"What?" asked 18, looking back.

"Not over. Valor organized his remaining followers. They're arming all of the Guardians and Paladins that are stored in the bunkers, the army he had built."

"How many?" asked 18.

Faith sighed and shook her head. "Five million." she replied. "Of each design."

_"Five million!?"_ 18 thought, her mind going numb. With five million even the weaker Guardian design would overwhelm her. Five million of the Paladins... that would be enough to overwhelm Cell, maybe even Pan. "Do you know were they are?"

"No." said Faith. "Valor kept the bunker locations a secret from all but his most trusted people. Zeal might know where a few of them are but I don't think even she'd know of all of them."

18 nodded. "Come here, climb onto my back. We need to leave the city quickly, before that army is activated."

Faith nodded again and quickly did as instructed. Once she had a firm hold around 18's neck the Cyborg lifted off the floor and then sped off through the hall, up the stairs, into the main room again, and then back out through the roof. Reaching the open sky she turned north, to where the largest knot of powers were located, and sped off for Gallant and the refugees. Faith on her back and Hope in her arms. It only took her a minute to reach the large gathering of people, about a mile beyond the city limits, and she descended to land near the edge of them.

Many of those who saw her come down paled and pulled back, others watched her in a mix of shock, confusion, curiosity, and fear. Only one of them stepped toward her, Zeal. "What happened?" she asked.

"Valor." 18 replied, handing over Hope's body.

"He caught us destroying the control computer for the Sentinels." explained Faith. "Hope saved me...."

Zeal sighed. "I will see to it that Hope is given a warrior's burial." she said. "And I take it, then, that Valor is gone?"

"He is." replied 18. "But the threat's not over yet. Valor's got those still loyal mobilizing his entire Battle Droid army, according to Faith. Do you know where the bunkers are?"

"Where the Battle Droids are stored?" asked Zeal. "Only four, but each bunker only holds a hundred thousand units. That would barely even put a dent in the forces." 18 closed her eyes and clenched her hands into fists. Zeal sighed and closed her own. "I do know this, though. The bunkers... they're all inside the city, about six hundred feet below ground."

18's eyes opened again. "All of them?"

"Yes."

The Cyborg turned and gazed at the city again. She was still picking up about five thousand powers inside the city limits. Five thousand wasn't a staggering number, not compared to the number of deaths already on her hands, but it was more than she cared to think about. She wished there was some other way but... Valor had forced her hand. She couldn't allow the Battle Droid army to be brought on-line. Five thousand now was better than the entire race later. "Have everyone move back and crouch down." she said, floating into the air. "And make sure the children aren't watching."

Zeal watched her float up for a moment and then turned and started yelling orders to those behind her, not that it was needed. The soldiers that had come with her had heard 18 as well and had already started sending out the word. The Cyborg stopped once she was high enough and then gave the city another look. Based on the size of the city, and the depth of the bunkers, she quickly calculated the power she'd need. Then, closing her eyes and shutting off her scanners so that she wouldn't have to see all the deaths about to occur, she placed her hands in front of her stomach, fingers bent to point at each other, red energy gathering between her hands.

Faith and Zeal watched on in apprehension, fear, and awe as they saw the energy flare up in the sky. The glow of light got the attention of most of those gathered behind them and many turned to watch. And then 18's voice rang out, clear even from their distance. "Nova Bomb!" The ball of light shot down at the city, impacted somewhere near the center, and then exploded in a roar of sound and a rush of wind and light. A towering column of energy surged into the smoke blackened sky, the ground shook knocking many off of their feet, and then the shockwave hit knocking over the rest of those still standing, including Zeal and Faith.

"In... incredible...." Zeal said in shock as she watched the massive column shrink and then vanish. Nothing remained of Defiance now. Nothing but a round canyon eight hundred feet deep.

18 floated back down and landed in front of Zeal and Faith as the two stood. "And with any luck that's the end of this." she said. She turned then as she caught Gallant nearing from her right. "Do your people have anywhere they can go?" she asked.

Gallant nodded. "There is another city, Independence, not too far from here." he said. "We should be able to walk there in three or four days. We owe you much, it would seem."

18 shook her head. "You don't owe me anything." she replied. "Too many people died here for that." She reached into one of her pockets and pulled out her capsule case. Opening it she pulled out one and held it out to Gallant. "This capsule contains a ComNet terminal." she said. "When you get to where you're going just press the button on top and give it a toss, the terminal will appear. It'll give you a direct link to someone on Saiya. If your raiders show up again before a team arrives to set up a station in the system use the terminal to contact Saiya and let them know. It'll take about three days for anyone to get here from Saiya, though."

Gallant nodded as he took the capsule. "And when should we expect this team?"

"I don't know." 18 said with a sigh. "It'll probably take a few weeks or so, before they can be assembled. We'll need to find enough people who can breathe down here or they wont be much help. As I told Faith earlier there are only three or four races we know of who the air here isn't toxic for. It's the entire reason Gero sent his team ten years ago, and why no one else from the Empire has bothered to come. Anyway, you'll be on your own for a bit, but with as long as the raiders have been gone you may have already chased them off for good anyway."

"Alright." he said. "Thank-you."

"How are you getting home?" asked Faith. "Valor destroyed your pod...."

18 smiled as she pulled out another capsule. "I have spares." she said.

"Spares? You have more than one spare?" asked Gallant.

"Yes, why?"

Gallant glanced back over his shoulder at the multitude of people he'd evacuated from Defiance, many of them still on the ground, most of them crying, then turned and look toward Faith. "I... hate to admit this." he said. "But many here will not be happy with Faith, even after all you've told us is proven true. Even those who left because they no longer trusted Valor will hold the deaths here, and the destruction of our city, against her. I... do not think it safe for her to remain with us."

Zeal nodded. "I hate to say it but Gallant's right. I don't think she'd... survive the trip to Independence, even if I were to stand watch over her the entire way myself."

18 turned at the sound of a thud and saw that Faith had just collapsed to the ground, eyes wide. The Cyborg could see that the woman agreed with the other two but hadn't even thought of it until they'd mentioned it. "Alright." she said. "If she wants I can take her with me as a refugee. We'll be able to find some place for her on Saiya until things settle down here."

Faith swallowed and then nodded. "Yes." she said. "Yes, I'll go. I... don't want Hope's sacrifice to save me to be wasted."

18 nodded and pulled out a second capsule before closing the case and putting it away again. "Alright. Say your good-byes and we'll go." Faith nodded again and, with a little help from Zeal, got back to her feet. Gallant then lead her into the mass of people to find her friends, if she still had any left. 18 turned her attention back to Zeal. "Where's Harmony? I figured she'd still be hanging on to you."

Zeal glanced at the Cyborg then turned her gaze to the ground. "She... she heard me telling others that we had to leave because you might have to destroy the city, to stop Valor and the Battle Droids, then she suddenly let go of me and ran back into the city, saying she wanted to stay with him."

18's stomach clenched then. _"She was just a kid...."_ she thought. "Love sucks." she muttered as she turned and gave the Capsules in her hand a toss. With a crack and a burst of smoke the two capsules exploded and a pair of Space Pods emerged just as Faith and Gallant came back out of the crowd. "Ready?" she asked. Faith nodded and the two of them walked over to the waiting pods and climbed in.

"It'll take about a week to get to Saiya." she told the other woman. "There's ration bars in the compartment to your right, they taste like crap but they've got all the nutrients you'll need. The Capsules in the left compartment each have a bottle of water. The compartment over your head has the air mask. There's two options with the mask. Hibernation gas, so you can sleep the whole way and wont need to eat or drink, and nano-bot mist. The nano-bot mist is for eliminating body waste if you don't sleep all the way, since there aren't any bathrooms in these things."

"Ok."

"Alright, let's go." 18 punched in a few commands and then the pod doors closed. There was a faint shudder and then the sudden pressure of momentum as the pods shot into the sky and out of the atmosphere.

XXX

18 sighed as she stared at the blinking "Connect?" on the screen. She'd been putting it off for two days now, contacting Saiya and finding out if it was still there. She was worried, terrified really, that the world was gone. That Kakkarotto had lost to Buu. But she knew she couldn't delay forever. She'd not told Faith about Buu or the possibility that Saiya was gone, she wouldn't unless the world _was_ gone, but she wouldn't know that until she contacted them. Finally she reached out and taped the green yes on the screen and "Connect?" changed to "Connecting...." and she waited.

A moment later Bulma's face came on the screen and she smiled. "Kakkarotto won?" she asked.

"Huh? Oh, Buu? Yeah." she said, nodding. 18 noticed she seemed a little preoccupied but the other woman pushed whatever it was aside. "Are you on your way back, then?"

"Yes." 18 said. "Where's Master Vegeta?"

"Busy with a rather... problematic issue."

"What kind of issue?"

"The missing Master kind."

"What?" asked 18, shocked.

"Cold and Inferna have vanished. They were crossing the Eye of the Universe via a Worm Hole but never came back out again." said Bulma. "No one can find them or has any idea where they are or what happened. They've been gone for about a week and a half now and Inferna's daughter is already starting to cause problems and tension. Cooler and Frieza aren't helping matters much, either. Vegeta's spending most of his time trying to keep things running smoothly between them all."

"Damn. If it's not one problem it's another anymore.... Well, I guess I can make my full report when I get back to Saiya, then." she said. "Though I do have a few things I think I should go over now."

"Go ahead, I'll make a note of it and pass it on."

"Alright. First of all, I've got a refugee with me. A Leberion native named Faith. She's the only reason I'm still alive and helping me put her in danger."

"Refugee status request, then?" asked Bulma. 18 nodded. "I can file that myself once we're done."

"Thanks. There are two other matters." 18 reached into her pocket and pulled out the small device that had been attached to her neck before. "This thing is called an 'Energy Inhibitor' and it was used to restrain me." she said. She saw Bulma's eyes widened. "Yeah, I was shocked too. I figure Gero's going to want it when I arrive. The other matter pertains as to _why_ Leberion was causing us so much trouble. They were being raided by what they thought were Imperial soldiers."

"Huh?"

"Apparently, since shortly after Gero's team left ten years ago, Leberion's been targeted by some group wearing antique battle armors. Constant attacks and abductions. Sounds like pirates to me, not uncommon, but they have Imperial equipment...."

Bulma nodded. "Vegeta's going to be pissed."

"Yeah, I figured as much. I left Gallant, their new leader, a ComNet terminal so he can contact us if they show up again." she said. "The Battle Droids have all been destroyed, no more threat there. Though they were a lot stronger than I expected. They had five that matched my power."

"Seriously?"

18 nodded. "Yeah. Anyway, that's everything for now. I'll give Master Vegeta the full details when I get back."

Bulma nodded again. "Alright. I'll give him what you gave me when I see him again."

"Thanks." said 18. "So, how's Marron doing?"

"Oh, that's right, you don't know yet." Bulma said, smiling. "She's doing good. She's been pretty happy lately, actually. Right now she's on Gorneo, or will be in a few more hours, at least."

"Gorneo?"

"Yep. I pulled a few strings, got her a posting there." Bulma explained. "I figured she'd like it out there, it'd give her something to do, instead of just sitting around the palace all day. And it's not that far from here so you'll be able to visit each other easily."

18 smiled. "Thanks."

Bulma shrugged. "No problem." she said. "Trunks went with her, Vegeta wants him to do a little 'overseeing' of some of the projects, a lot of them are falling behind and turning in pretty crappy work as of late."

The Cyborg chuckled. Just having Trunks on the planet would increase productivity by at least ten percent, always did, and that was without him lifting a finger. Meanwhile she was looking at some data on her screen. She'd looked up the location of Gorneo and it made her smile a little. "Gorneo's on route back to Saiya." she said. "In fact, if I detour now I can be there in a couple of hours. Should get there right around the same time as Trunks and Marron."

"I think they'd like that." Bulma said. "I can let Vegeta know you'll be delayed getting back. And... Marron's got something she wants to tell you, anyway."

"Oh?" 18 asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm not saying anything more than it's the reason she's happy." replied Bulma, grinning. "Just ask her when you see her."

18 chuckled again. "Alright, I will." she said, closing the connection. _"Should have called them days ago, would have saved me a lot of anxiety."_ she thought as she patched in to Faith's pod. The other woman had chosen to not use the hibernation gas so that she could take in all of the sights. No one from her world had ever been in space before, not counting those abducted by the raiders. "Faith?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm going to make a detour to Gorneo, visit my daughter." she said. "Just found out she's got a job there now. You can either go on to Saiya by yourself or stay with me, it's up to you."

"I... I'd rather stay with you." she said.

18 nodded. She'd figured the woman wouldn't want to deal with the other Masters and the Empire all on her own. "Alright. We'll be there in a few hours then."

"Ok."

XXX

Bulma sighed as she turned back to her equations again, her mind drifting back to her fears. Cold and Inferna and their ships, gone. Vanished without a trace. In the Eye of the Universe. The place she knew instabilities would surface first. She hadn't noticed any yet but it was the only explanation she could think of for what had happened to the two Masters. She figured the Worm Hole had simply enhanced the effect of the instability allowing them to fall through it before she could detect it. She didn't like the implications one bit, though. Even with a Worm Hole the only way she could see that there could be an instability of that level was if the universe had passed the tipping point already.

She couldn't help but wonder how long it would be before she started picking up the instabilities. How long before they became obvious. How long before the universe actually began to rip itself apart. She'd considered telling Vegeta or Gero about it but... Marron was the only one she'd ever actually talked about her equations with, before. Vegeta knew of them, of course. So did Gero, he'd shown some interest in them originally. But the math was actually beyond him, something Bulma had been shocked by. Beyond that, he was more of a physical science person, so he eventually lost interest.

Telling either of them about her concerns now would require explaining her stability equation in greater detail and, perhaps, allowing them to discover the survival of the Humans. Besides, if she were right, there wasn't anything they'd be able to do, anyway. Once the universe was past the tipping point, past the point of no return, there was no going back. Period. It wouldn't even give them any advantage at locating Cold and Inferna. So, in the end, she decided there was no point. It wouldn't accomplish anything of value and she couldn't even be certain she was right. Not until her sensors started picking up on the instabilities, anyway.

She spent the next few hours going over her prediction equation. She was still stumped as to how, exactly, to factor in Shenron's effects. She did, however, have a few theories, the one she was currently pursing was a quantum mechanical, nine dimensional, temporal ripple trace. She knew, from Gero's study of the Kanassans ability to see the future, that future events were pretty well anchored in place. It was possible to effect things, slightly, if you knew of them in advance. But if you didn't know what was coming you'd always react in a certain way, those around you would react in a certain way, and a specific course of events would then occur. Always.

She also knew that the reason the Kanassans could even see the future at all was because all events left ripples that flowed through time, both forward and backward. The larger the event the greater the ripple created. The Dragons made major changes to the universe with every wish, even the smallest in scope would likely create a large ripple. If she could trace the ripples created by the Dragons by following the displaced flow of time created by their alteration of the fundamentals of the universe then, perhaps, she could factor them in. She could lock in on the Dragons at each summoning, try and interpret the energy patterns and level shifts that surrounded their summonings, and from those find a way of plotting them. Perhaps even discover some sort of imprint pattern they left behind that would allow her to predict them as completely as anyone else.

Finally, eyes tired and fingers sore from all of her work, she set aside her chalk and dusted off her hands. Supper would be served down in the cafeteria soon and she was starving. She could work more on the equation later. Besides, she still needed to talk with Vegeta. Making her way from the room she headed down to large and noisy cafeteria.

Nearing the doors she found Vegeta emerging, in conversation with Gero. "So they'll have a team in the Eye by the end of the month?" he asked.

Gero nodded. "That's my understanding. Phyre is sending out four dozen ships to scour the entire Eye for any trace of their ships."

"And Cooler and Frieza?"

Gero sighed. "Still causing problems. Both of them are refusing to concede to the other's claim of control over even a portion of Cold's section of the East Galaxy. Unfortunately Changeling law isn't exactly clear on the matter, either. Cooler is the eldest and, technically, the strongest. But only due to his latter forms. On a form by form basis Frieza is the stronger of the two, considerably so at that. Changeling law says that power supercedes age but doesn't bother to clarify if it means maximum total power comparative power."

Vegeta sighed and rubbed his forehead for a moment, then spotted Bulma waiting a few feet away. "Something up?" he asked.

"Some good news, I think." said Bulma. "Sounds like you could use some."

"That's an understatement." he muttered. "So, what is it?"

"18 contacted me earlier." she replied. "She's finished with the Leberion mission and is on her way back, and with a refugee. Also, It seems the Leberion people were only causing us trouble because they thought we were attacking them. From what 18 learned she thinks it's a band of pirates that are behind it. Only, these pirates, they've got battle armor and Imperial equipment." Vegeta was scowling before she'd even finished. "She left them a ComNet terminal to contact us if they come by again."

Vegeta nodded. "Good. I hope they do, I'd like to know where they got their supplies." he said, frowning.

She turned her gaze to Gero then. "She's also got something for you."

"Oh?"

"Something called an 'Energy Inhibitor' that was used to restrain her."

"Interesting....." Gero said. "To have been able to restrain 18 is quite impressive. When will she be back?"

"I don't know." Bulma said. "After I told her about Marron's post she decided to detour to Gorneo before coming back, since it's along the route."

Vegeta stiffened. "She's stopping at Gorneo?"

"Yeah. She's probably there by now, or almost there, she said it was only a few hours from her location when she called." Bulma replied.

Vegeta suddenly turned and hurried off down the hall leaving Bulma and Gero to stare after him in confusion.


	30. Gorneo

_Chapter Thirty - Gorneo_

"Lord Cold! Lord Cold!" a voice cried through the halls. Cold and Inferna turned from the room they were now exploring, a large round room with some sort of unknown machine at its center. They'd been attempting to determine what it might be, without activating it in case it was dangerous, for a couple of hours or so, as far as Cold could tell. Though the message in the Record Orb had proven accurate, time was effectively a nonexistent thing on this world, what seemed like an hour to one group might only be a few minutes or even a few days to another.

A moment later the source of the voice appeared in the doorway. One of Cold's men, wearing the ice blue, orange, and black trimmed armor of one of his science staff. "What is it?" he asked.

"The translation of the Grand Hall." the man panted.

"It's finished?"

"No." he said, shaking his head. "Not entirely. There are sections, entire passages, we can't read, written in languages we don't know, and large areas we've not even gotten to yet. We're still deciphering those, using context from other areas to figure them out. But... we have deciphered enough of the wall, translated enough of the writing, to understand parts. And... it's not their history. It's ours. If it even _is_ history."

"What do you mean?" asked Inferna.

"We've not found anything on the wall that references this world." he said. "But there are a lot of mentions of the four galaxies. The writing is odd, the wording isn't always very clear on matters, but some of us think we recognize descriptions of events. Things that happened in the North Galaxy. And one section, we think it's talking about Master Kakkarotto's fight with Buu."

Cold's eyes widened a little at that and he turned fully to face the man now. "Are you certain?"

"Not entirely, sir. It's the wording. The passage goes 'And the Demon shall be freed from its twice fold confinement, the shell of Rock and the shell of Good, and set to bring Death to the stars. But The False Gods shall know of it and stand against it before its terror truly beings, and the Evil shall die and the Good shall live and the False Gods will rise higher in their power.' We've seen mention of 'The False Gods' elsewhere and we think they're talking about the Masters. One section says 'And The False Gods shall then come through a union of powers, the Horned and the Newly Tailless, and they shall seize the universe and lead it to the End of Days.' I don't know about this 'End of Days' stuff but...."

Cold nodded. The Sai-jins had certainly been 'newly tailless' and he was most certainly horned, and they had made a 'union of powers' that had seized the universe.

"But then... the writing on those walls... is prophecy?" asked Inferna.

"Not unheard of." said Cold. "The Kanassans have the power to see the future, to a limited extent. It's not controllable and often limited to events that directly effect the individual seeing them, though. If these truly are prophecies that the former inhabitants witnessed and wrote down then their ability exceeds that of the Kanassans. And the information on those walls would be invaluable to us."

"Agreed." said Inferna, making her way from the room, Cold right behind. "Anything else of interest that you've managed to translate?" she asked the researcher.

"A few places." he said. "There's a passage near what we think is the end of the writing that we've only got partly deciphered so far but already has us interested. It goes...." He pursed his lips for a moment, thinking. "'Having been planted long before, the seeds of...' and then we can't read a few lines, but it continues '...and from the Blood shall be born the Destroyer, and from the Mind the Creator. He shall come to End them all, she shall come to Defend them all. Innocent and Evil and False God, their Fates to be determined by their Wills alone.'"

"Interesting." said Cold, as they entered the Grand Hall again. It sounded like a prophecy about the end of the world, or rather, end of the universe. And, by the sound of it, the outcome of the battle could go either way. There were mentions in old documents left by the Ancients of a 'great battle' that would one day decide the fate of the universe. No reference to any gods in said battle, though they did mention that the 'child gods' would be destroyed before the battle began. Those documents also said that the fate of the universe, to be destroyed or to be preserved, was up to those who lived in it.

The researcher lead him and Inferna over to the wall by the door out of the building. There were six others already at the wall apparently in the midst of a heated debate. "I'm telling you, it means 'those who defied them'." said one of the researchers.

"And I'm telling you it means 'those who died'." said another.

"How does that make any sense?" asked a third. "How can 'those who died' lead anything? They're dead."

"What's up?" asked the researcher who'd come to find Cold.

"We're in a disagreement over what part of the writing says." answered one of the others. "We're split, three to three, over the meaning of a word. We believe it means 'died' while they think 'defied'."

"And I'm telling you, 'died' is impossible."

"Read it to me." said Cold.

The researchers blinked, having not noticed Cold or Inferna until he'd spoken. One of them turned to the wall and read the line in question. "Those who _died_..." he said, emphasizing the word. "Shall rise and lead the charge against The False Gods, and those who turned away shall come again, and they shall stand with those who died...." He turned from the wall again. "And that's all we've managed so far."

"Like I said, 'died' is impossible." said one of the other researchers. "Once you're dead that's it, you can't lead shit."

"We're talking end of the world stuff, here." countered another. "People returning from the dead is a fairly common theme in most end of the world myths. I think that's what it means by 'rise and lead the charge', they're somehow restored to life."

"How? I mean, what could possibly bring the dead back?"

"Parunga, for one." said Cold. The researchers stopped in their debate and turned to the Changeling. "From my understanding even Shenron had the power to revive the dead, Parunga is supposed to be even more powerful. Still, both translations make some level of sense. I'd imagine any who died and would come against us had also already defied us."

"Dual meaning?" asked one of the researchers, looking at the passage again. "Could that be it?"

"Maybe...." agreed another.

"Let's leave it as an 'and/or' thing for now." said the first. "If we can find the word elsewhere on these walls maybe we can get a better meaning from it."

XXX

Trunks sighed as he switched off his computer terminal. The worst part about being a Master, as far as he was concerned, was all of the boring reports he had to wade through on a daily basis. Half of which never really mattered in the end, anyway, and half of those that did matter were often old and out dated by the time he got to them. Like the one he'd just read about the Talon having been hit by unknown attackers and now being stranded out in the middle of nowhere. Six days old, his father and Gero had already dealt with it and arranged for a rescue transport to pick them up. Not that it would even get there for over a month.

The ones that never mattered in the end were things like new Imperial postings, like the one he'd read the other morning that had finally gone through about his and Marron's imminent arrival at the Gorneo facility. Not only did he already _know_ about that, since it was about him, but by the end of the day there wouldn't _be_ a Gorneo facility anymore. Equally boring and annoying were the occasional field reports that had nothing in them. Like the one he'd just read that went on for five pages and just said 'We've not found any trace of Tao yet' in the longest and most boring way possible.

Standing up he reached up and pulled off his scouter, dropped it onto his chair, and rubbed his eyes. He couldn't wait to get out of this damned ship and stretch his legs some. And he couldn't deny he was looking forward to the coming mission, at least to some degree. He was dreading Bra or 18 learning about it any time in the next hundred or so years, give them both time to get over the whole mess before they found out and the backlash wouldn't be so severe. But he hadn't had any kind of mission in ages, and hadn't gotten to really let loose for almost as long.

Beyond that, though, there was the fact that Marron _was_ a babe. Considering that she wouldn't be talking to Bra or 18 to report any... er, 'bad behavior' on his part, he had no reason to be 'good'. He grinned, thinking about that. Within the hour he'd have her screaming in, he was sure, more ways than one. He'd just have to be careful in case of a power flare up. If she had another of those, like back on Saiya, she could do serious damage. Hell, unless he was transformed she'd be more than strong enough to kill him. Without even trying.

_"Maybe I should transform first, just to be safe."_ he thought. He was just about to pick his scouter back up when he heard a knock at his door so he turned from his chair, walked over to the door, and opened it. "Oh, hey Marron." he said, finding her standing there. "What's up?"

"The Captain asked me to come down and get you." she said. "He needs you up on the bridge. Something about a Clearance Code error?"

Trunks sighed. "Alright, I'm coming." he said.

She walked with him through the ship up to the bridge. "What's a Clearance Code error?" she asked.

"Huh? Oh, installation worlds like this one have strict regulations on ship arrivals." he explained. "Any ship intending to land on the planet needs to transmit a Clearance Code down first. Once it's verified the ship is given landing permission. Try to land without a code and...." he shrugged. "Mom and Gero built some high powered energy cannons that they'll use to blast the ship into oblivion. An error means that our code, for whatever reason, isn't being accepted."

"Are they going to shoot us?"

"Nah, not so long as we don't try to land." said Trunks. "Which is why the Captain wants me. Under normal circumstances he'd have to call back to Saiya for a new code and he could be stuck in orbit for days waiting for it to be processed. But, well, I'm a Master so...."

"You just show your face and instant clearance?" she asked, laughing.

Trunks nodded. "Pretty much." he said as they reached the bridge.

Trunks made his way over to the Captain, who was talking to someone on the planet. "I know, just give... ah, here we are." he said, spotting Trunks. "I told you it would only take a few minutes."

The man on the screen turned his gaze from the Captain to Trunks. "Oh, Master Trunks." he said, nodding. "We'd heard you were coming. Sorry for the inconvenience, but...."

Trunks waved it off. "Doesn't matter, it happens." he said. _"Besides, I knew it would."_ he thought. It had been part of the arrangements his father had made. He'd included it in a special report, one that Trunks had already destroyed. The bad Clearance Code would be logged in the computer network, as would the fact that no replacement code had been requested. No records were kept of good codes, just the bad ones, so no one would know it had been his ship with the bad code. Instead, they could pass it off as Slug attempting to get onto the planet with the bad code.

"Alright, clearance granted. You can land when ready, Captain."

The Captain nodded. "Ma'am, Master Trunks, you may want to take a seat." he said, before turning to his pilot. "Alright, set us down." Trunks and Marron quickly grabbed empty chairs on the bridge and strapped themselves in as the ship began its descent. It was fairly smooth for the first few moments and then the rocking and jostling started as they hit the atmosphere and grew worse as they pushed further in. Saucer ships weren't particularly aerodynamic so landings were never very smooth but Marron felt this one was the worst she'd ever gone through, even if it was only her third.

So she was quite happy when, after a few minutes, the bouncing settled down and then stopped. A moment later she felt the light shudder of touchdown and then the Captain spoke up again. "Landing complete. Attention all passengers and crew, we have arrived on Gorneo. Those disembarking are to report to their designated exit."

Trunks un-strapped himself and stood. "Well, come on Marron. Let's go get you settled in with the guy running this place."

Marron swallowed down her nervousness and nodded as she got up and followed him off the bridge. They'd only gone a short distance down the hall before reaching an exit and making their way out of the ship. The two of them descended the stairs down to the landing pad and Trunks pointed out the main building of operations to Marron. Meanwhile, in Trunks's quarters on the ship, his scouter, still laying on his chair, began to beep, indicating an incoming message.

XXX

Vegeta came to a stop in front of his private terminal and quickly brought it on-line. Once it was up and running he accessed the ComNet and sent a message out to Trunks's scouter. "Come on, damn it." he growled, watching the flashing 'Waiting for Connection' message. After two minutes he gave up on the scouter, Trunks apparently didn't have it on or near him. Instead, he searched through the transmission codes on his terminal for Gorneo's planetary transmission frequency, since he didn't know the code. But after another five minutes of searching he couldn't find it. "Damn it!" he cried, turning from the terminal and hurrying from the room.

He'd need to go talk to Gero.

XXX

"Ah, Master Trunks." a man standing at the doors to the main building said, bowing. He was ten feet tall, dark green skinned, with long blue hair half way down his back, black eyes, and wearing a brown business suit. "And you must be Mistress 18's daughter. Lady Marron, yes?"

Marron nodded. "Yeah."

"Welcome, welcome." the man said. "I'm Gene, head of the Gorneo Research Center. I've seen your application papers and knowledge base and I must say I'm glad to have you here."

"Y-you are?" Marron asked, shocked.

Gene nodded. "Quite glad, in fact. We've been having a string of... er... bad luck with a few projects of ours, ones I think you are well suited for. I think fresh eyes are what we need."

"Already found a place for her?" Trunks asked. "I'm impressed."

"Well, she wont be starting right away." said Gene. "A few days to settle in, time to get acquainted with the staff, read up on the projects, all of that."

Trunks nodded. "Well, I'll let you two talk for now." he said. "I need to head over to the ComCenter and take care of a few matters."

"It's just over there." Gene said, pointing to another building not more than a thousand feet away. "And I do hope you have more luck than us with it."

"What do you mean?" Trunks asked.

Gene shrugged. "Solar flare activity." he said. "Been randomly screwing up transmissions for the last couple of days. We've not been able to get anything to go more than five million miles since yesterday morning, even with the stronger transmitters at the Center. Personal coms equipment hasn't worked over more than a mile for a week. I don't think you'll be getting through to anyone unless you've got a Class A transmitter with you."

Trunks had to force himself not to grin. He'd expected to have to wipe out all communications on the planet first and fast. This made things easier. He could blast the ComCenter, take out the ship ports, and then relax and take his time from there. "Well, I'll give it shot." he said, turning and leaving.

Marron watched him walk off for a moment then turned back to Gene. "So, um, what's this project?" she asked.

"Ah, right, that. Come inside and I'll explain. I'll even be able to point a few things out, I think." he said, opening the door and leading her into the building. Marron's eyes widened as she got a look inside. The room they'd just entered was massive, at least five hundred feet across, another six hundred wide, and she figured about seven stories tall. Despite the size it was still heavily crowded. Computer terminals were set about all over the place, hundreds of people were milling about running from station to station, working at the terminals, calling off data feed readings from various monitors.

"Here we are." said Gene as he lead her to one of the larger terminal stations. The terminal was attached to a holo-projector unit, had five keyboards, three screens, and ten people standing around it. "This group is doing some research into the Sarinora virus. As I'm sure you know it is one of the most deadly viruses in the entire North Galaxy. As such we very rarely work with the real thing and instead use computer simulations." He motioned to one such simulation currently running on the holo-projector. "We've actually got three projects involving Sarinora. A vaccine research project and two engineering projects."

"Engineering?" Marron asked. "You're trying to alter it?"

Gene nodded. "We want to make it a benign carrier." he said. "Sarinora is easily and highly transmittable. Carrier Project A is seeking to use it as a base for a 'communicable cure'. Something we can give to only a few people and have it spread. A cure that works like a disease. Carrier Project B wants to use it as a control mechanism in a genetic computer. Sarinora naturally exchanges genetic material with its host. If we can control the exchange we can finally realize DNA based computers."

Marron nodded. "I see. And which project did you want me on?" she asked.

"Well, you're highly qualified for all three, and all three are behind schedule." said Gene. "So any of the three you want to work on is good by m...." He trailed off as the ground suddenly shuddered violently, a thunderous explosion tearing through even the noise of the large room. "What the hell was that!?" he cried, turning back toward the doors. Suddenly three more massive explosions rocked the building and people began rushing toward the doors to see what was up.

Marron heard a few startled gasps from the front of the crowd as she pushed her way through, with Gene, to see what was up. And then she left out one of her own as she saw Trunks fire an energy blast into the ship the two of them had arrived on, blowing the entire thing to pieces.

XXX

Gero turned at the sound of a loud bang and saw Vegeta walking into the lab. The bang had been the door slamming into the wall. "What is it?"

"I need you to contact Gorneo." Vegeta said. "I don't know the planetary communications frequency and I couldn't find it in my terminal."

"Gorneo?" Gero asked, walking from the station he'd been at and over to another. Bending over they keys he began entering a series of commands. "Would this be related to 18's unexpected detour?" He asked as he worked. Getting no answer he glanced back and saw that Vegeta was staring at the monitor and seemed preoccupied. Turning back to the keyboard he finished entering the commands and straightened up again. The large screen shifted from the data he'd been working on to a flashing 'Connecting....' message.

However, twenty seconds went by and no connection formed. Finding this odd Gero bent over they keys again and quickly typed in a new set of commands. 'Connecting....' vanished and was replaced with 'Searching....' which remained, flashing, on the screen for nearly five minutes. Finally it vanished and was replaced with 'No corresponding signal detected'. Gero turned from the screen to face Vegeta. "I think, perhaps, you should fill me in." he said. "It seems that Gorneo is no longer on the ComNet."

Vegeta closed his eyes and forced himself to calm down some. He was too tense and he knew it. With Gorneo off the ComNet that meant that Trunks had already begun the mission. There was no way now to tell him to postpone his orders until after 18 had come and gone. So long as Trunks kept his wits, and18 didn't realize exactly what was occurring, he could handle the woman, Vegeta knew that. Opening his eyes again he sighed. "Trunks is on a covert mission, one I didn't want getting out to 18."

"Oh? Something to do with her daughter, I suppose?"

Vegeta nodded. "The girl displayed some sort of odd power spike a while back." he said. "While Kakkarotto was off fighting Buu. Apparently to a level near matching that of Gohan."

Gero's eyes widened. "Interesting. I hadn't thought she would be any different than a normal Human.... 18's genetic tweaks aren't for the purposes of power but for managing her systems."

"Whatever the cause was we decided she was a threat that needed removed." Vegeta said. "Especially considering her father and the fact she didn't grow up here with us. So I sent Trunks with her to take care of it in a way that would look like an attack by Slug."

Gero nodded. "I see. And he's apparently started, then, with the planet being off the ComNet." Gero moved from the terminal he was at and over to another one. "And now 18 is soon to arrive on the planet as well."

"Exactly. Transformed, Trunks could deal with her, but there's no guarantee he'd get the chance to transform. If she arrives before he finishes up his cover will be shot."

"Let's see where she's at." said Gero, bending over the keyboard of the new terminal. 'Accessing Android 18 Command Systems....' appeared on the screen a few seconds later. "Hmm, odd...."

"What?" Vegeta demanded.

"I'm having trouble establishing a system lock." explained Gero. "Hang on." He moved over to a third terminal now and quickly ran a deep scan of the Gorneo system to try and trace the interference. A few moments later a stream of data filled the screen. "Well, this explains things, but it makes things difficult." he said.

"What is it?" asked the Sai-jin. He was quickly becoming tense again.

"High solar activity." explained Gero. "There's a massive Solar Storm occurring on the surface of the system's star. The solar flares are causing transmission problems."

"Can you still get through to her?"

"I should be able to, yes." said Gero. "I'll need to boost the signal some, and possibly run through a relay net. It'll take some time, though."

XXX

Marron was having trouble believing what she was seeing as she watched the remains of the ship rain down. Her eyes roamed up to where Trunks floated and she saw him turn to look her way and swallowed. He floated toward them and she heard people behind her shifting and moving back but she was rooted where she stood. She couldn't figure out what was going on, why he'd blow up the ship like that, or the other buildings she could now see laying in ruins. "Wh-what's going on...?" she asked as Trunks landed in front of her.

He shrugged. "Father's decided to close the facilities here." he said, raising an arm.

Marron's eyes widened in shock as she heard and felt a sudden blast of energy rush past her head. And then there was a deafening boom and a sudden shockwave that flung her forward into Trunks. Her ears still ringing she moved back a few steps from him, turned, and stared in disbelief at what she saw. The interior of the building was now a smoking, smoldering, pile of rubble. The people behind her were gone and, as the ringing in her ears faded, she could hear some people crying and screaming for help. "I... I don't under-understand...." she stammered, turning back to Trunks.

Trunks sighed as he lowered his arm and reached the hand toward her. She flinched instinctively but he just brushed a strand of hair back off her face and behind her ear. "Bra's going to be a mess for weeks, if not months, over your death." he said, shaking his head. "But orders are orders."

"M-my... my death?" Marron stammered, eyes widening more, as she took a half step back. "Orders? What... I don't...."

"Do you remember?" Trunks asked. "The spar? The stray energy blast that nearly killed you?"

"What...?"

Trunks shook his head. "Bra didn't save you." he said. "You saved yourself. I don't know how but you had a power spike, at least equal to Gohan's base level, way above the rest of our bases. Dad...." he shrugged. "As you can imagine it concerned him, given who your father was and that you didn't grow up with us. So, I was sent along. Partly to shut down the project here, it's been nothing but a drain on resources for the last few years, and partly to deal with you. Father decided it best to just eliminate your threat. Gotta put on a good show for 18, and Bra now as well I suppose, so your death and the destruction of the facility here is going to be pinned on Slug."

Marron blinked a few times, still unable to fully grasp what Trunks was saying. "You...." she started, as it started to sink in. "You came... came along to... kill me?"

"Yep. Sorry." he said. Marron took a few steps back as Trunks suddenly smiled. "Though that will have to wait a little while, I want to have a little fun, first."

XXX

18 scowled at the display screen of her pod. "What the hell is up?" she wondered. She'd been trying for the last five minutes to re-establish a connection with Gorneo. She'd had one, for all of two seconds, and then it went dead. She couldn't even get a signal lock now. "This doesn't make any sense, I'm too close to the planet for the solar flares to be causing this much interference." she said, crossing her arms. She debated diverting her course to orbit the planet instead of staying on her landing course for a moment. She'd not been able to transmit her Clearance Code so it was possible they'd shoot at her.

Pods were a lot harder to track and hit than ships, though. So even if they did shoot there was a good chance they'd miss. Beyond that, the only explanation she could think of for the sudden communications loss was damage to the ComCenter's transmission and reception towers. And if they were damaged that likely meant some sort of trouble. Shutting off her ComLink she checked her landing coordinates and ETA. She was only a minute away from the atmosphere now, no time to turn even if she wanted and she didn't want to. With the small size of Gorneo it had a smaller atmosphere as well, so she'd be down on the planet's surface in eight minutes.

Reaching over she patched in to Faith's pod. "We'll be landing soon." she said. "And there's something wrong."

"Wrong?"

"Communications are out, I can't get through to anyone on the surface. When we land stay with the pods, I'll go check it out."

"Alright."

XXX

Vegeta tapped his foot as he watched the screen, waiting for something, anything, to come up for several minutes. Gero had boosted the output of his transmitter and re-directed the beam into a smaller field, plus he was relaying the signal through several booster satelites in the area. So far, though, reception had remained spotty. They got a ping off of 18's tracer twice, once just beyond the planet's atmosphere and once on the planet, a couple miles beyond the limits of the Research Center's perimeter. The problem now wasn't getting the signal out, it was getting one back from her.

Suddenly the sceen seemed to shift and distort and then the lock that Gero had just gotten again, this one somewhere inside the complex, vanished. "What is it?" he demanded.

"Another signal loss." Gero replied. "No matter, the next lock we get will be enough for the shut down command to go through, I've already got it...." he stopped then as a flashing message appeared on the screen. ANDROID 18 FAILSAFE FIVE ACTIVATION - SECURITY LOCKOUT ENGAGED.

"What's that?" Vegeta demanded.

"Not good, that's what." replied Gero. "I disabled that failsafe years ago...."

"But what _is_ it?"

"A security measure I took while still on Earth." replied Gero. "Back then I couldn't guarantee that no one had access to my computers. There was always the possibility that someone in the Resistance would catch on to what I was doing and use the failsafes in 17 and 18 to shut them down, leaving me in a bad position. So I created Failsafe Five as a security measure in case of a breech. Upon discovery and recognition of an enemy at my computer the failsafe would engage, disable the tracer, and lock the computer out.

"I shut it down once I moved here to Saiya, though. I don't get how it's working now...." He sighed. "Unfortunately it means that your son is on his own, and in danger. The only reason this would have engaged now is if 18 has realized that Trunks is behind what has happened on Gorneo and now considers all of us her enemies."

"And you can't deactivate it?"

"No, I'm afraid not." said Gero. "The entire point was to stop people from getting into her systems. It will only deactivate when she no longer percieves enemy control of the computer."

"Damn it." Vegeta muttered, rubbing his forehead. He was a bit calmer now, at least. The shock had faded. He knew Trunks could deal with 18 so long as he recognized she was a danger. Still, this made a mess of things. He'd have no choice, now, but to tell everyone at least some of what happened. No matter what happened on Gorneo now it was going to cause problems. Especially with it happening on top of Cold and Inferna's disappearance.

"Can we at least get a power reading from the planet?" he asked at last. If he couldn't stop 18 he could at least try and watch if she and Trunks fought. Gero nodded and set to work on that. It only took about two minutes before the screen was displaying power levels from the planet, and one of them shot up not even five seconds later to over seventy million. Trunks had just transformed which meant 18 had confronted him. "Well, that settles it then." Vegeta said, turning from the screen. "Trunks will be fine now that he's aware of her presence. Gero, see if you can try and get some sort of transmission to the planet to contact him."

"Sure." Gero replied, turning the scanner off again and going to back to his efforts to get a solid signal through to the planet. "Will you be informing the others?"

Vegeta sighed. "I've no choice at this point." he said. He glanced at a clock on the wall then. "I've got a meeting with all the heads in about fifteen minutes to go over this Cold matter. I'll bring it up then."


	31. Fury Incarnate

**Part Four: Wrath of the Betrayed**

_Chapter Thirty-one - Fury Incarnate_

18 stared at the screen of her pod as the world outside zipped past in a blur of reds, whites, and blues. The pod had entered the atmosphere a few moments ago and was currently surging down through the sky toward the surface of the planet. Her eyes were watching both the nearing planet and her data readouts. Her course was right on, she'd land just outside the perimeter of the Research Center, about a mile or two beyond the edge. The scanners in the pod were reading a handful of powers still in the area, but every so often one of them would blink out of existence. Others were dropping and slowly fading on their own.

Something was definitely going on down below. She couldn't stop worrying about Marron. If anything had happened to her.... She closed her eyes and shook her head, forcing those thoughts away. Trunks was down there somewhere, he could protect her from whatever was going on. Unless he was dead, too. _"Stop it."_ she told herself, clenching her teeth. _"Stop doing that, everything's going to be fine, you'll see."_ Though she kept repeating it over and over the whole way down she found she still wasn't believing it even as she felt the bone jarring impact of landing.

As the pod door began to hiss and open she reached out a hand and shoved it the rest of the way up causing the motor to whine and spark in protest. Ignoring it 18 pulled herself out the pod and turned her gaze toward the research complex. She could see billowing clouds of smoke rising up all over the place and her scanners picked up three more powers as they blinked out of existence. Hearing a startled gasp beside her she turned and saw Faith starring at the rising smoke, eyes wide. 18 turned her focus back to the complex and started adjusting her scanners. Marron only had a power of nine, she could ignore everything above that and just track the lower ones, try and find her that way.

"Your daughter... is here?" Faith asked.

18 nodded. "Somewhere." she said. "Stay here, I'm going to go and find her." With that she lifted into the air and flew off toward the complex. She reached the outer edge of the complex a few seconds later and pulled to a stop, eyes roaming over everything she could see. She could tell, just by the layout of the destruction, that this hadn't simply been some sort of random accident. The ComCenter was a pile of rubble as were all the ships and ship ports. It was impossible for anyone on the surface to get a message out or leave.

Her first thought was that maybe Valor had already sent out part of his Battle Droid army. Gorneo was fairly close to Leberion, but she doubted it. This had to be something else....

She was tempted to crank her scanners back up again, try and get a lock on Trunks's power instead of Marron's. Assuming that whoever did this hadn't caught him by surprise he would have survived, might still be out there fighting them. But she resisted the urge. Trunks could take care of himself and, much as she cared about him, her daughter was far more important to her. Marron represented everything she felt like she'd lost, everything she now lived for. She had to find her.

She realized then that she was shaking, shivering despite the warmth of the sun beating down on her. Her heart was pounding and her hands were sweaty. She hadn't felt like this in years. Not since that night. The night she'd warned Krillin to evacuate, told him that she was with the Empire, that Imperial soldiers were coming to wipe out the base. She'd felt sick to her stomach then, confessing what she was to him, terrified that he'd hate her. But he hadn't, he'd asked her to come with him, to escape with them. And she would have, if she hadn't known about all of Gero's failsafes.

But because of them it hadn't been possible and she told him so and so she'd helped him to get away and she'd gone on to openly join the Empire and then the Masters. She'd lost him that night, though. Long before the Earth had been destroyed, long before he was killed, she'd lost him. She'd lost her daughter before that but had vowed to find her again and had. Found her and tracked her and watched over her as soon as it was possible to do so. Now Krillin was lost for good, completely and totally, and Marron was all she had. If she lost her now, lost her again, lost her completely....

'INTERNAL RECORDING IN PROGRESS....' suddenly flashed across her vision. She wasn't sure she'd be in the proper state of mind after this to make any sort of report. Better to record everything and give that to Gero than try to do it herself.

Swallowing her fear she gazed over the burning, smoking, and ruined complex looking for the main command center. A moment later she spotted a building that still looked mostly intact, though there was smoke pouring out the doors and windows and the walls were cracked. It looked like the command center and she flew off toward it, landing on the steps outside a moment later. She tried to force her body to calm down, to get back under control, but the sight of the all but obliterated interior of the building was making it hard for her to focus, for her to even stay on her feet.

She opened her mouth to call out, to yell for her daughter, but the sound caught in her throat. She couldn't make her legs work, she couldn't make her voice work, she couldn't even focus on the data still streaming into her mind from her scanner. She closed her eyes, swallowed again, forced the memory of that building out of her mind, and focused on the numbers she was getting. There were eight powers in the building. Two near the back, five closer to the middle, and one near the front, off to the right side. Probably only a few feet inside the door.

The two in the back were dropping slowly, currently only just over three. Whoever they belonged to they were slowly dying. The five near the center ranged from one to six and were shifting about, up and down, like a flickering candle. The five of them were in shock, their bodies overloading from pain and injury and shutting down. The one closest to her was only at two now, dropping slowly, but faster than those in the back. Whoever it was was fading, wouldn't live much longer. Those eight powers were it, were all 18 could detect in the area. All of them were dying and she was terrified that if she called for Marron one of those dying people would answer.

Suddenly, she froze.

Her shaking froze, her throat froze in the midst of another swallow of fear, it felt like even her heart had frozen. She'd heard a sound. Faint, barely audible at all. It sounded like a sob, someone crying. The closest of the eight powers, probably. The one that looked like it would be gone in a few more moments. And it sounded like it was a female. _"It can't be Marron."_ 18 thought. _"It just can't be...."_ Her hands started shaking again as she made a half step forward, then took a step back instead. As soon as she did she hated herself for it. _"No, if it is then I have to know. I _have_ to. And... and if it is then... I don't want her to be alone now."_ she thought, finishing the swallow that had frozen in her throat.

She took a step forward, slowly, cautiously. She opened her mouth to try again to call but still nothing came out. Another step, another attempt to call out, still nothing. But she could hear the crying better now, could tell for certain that it was a woman. She refused to believe what her gut was telling her, though. Refused to believe that it was Marron. Nearly turned around and went to look somewhere else, to find out where Marron actually was, because she couldn't be the power just beyond the door that would be gone soon. She couldn't....

"Marron...?" she called, softly, barely over a whisper. She stopped then, shocked that she'd managed any sound at all, and then froze again. The sobbing had cut and she could hear a voice. Soft and weak. "Oh... no, no, no, no, no." 18 whispered, her body coming back into her control, and she ran into the building and around the corner and stopped dead, eyes wide. There lay Marron, just a couple of feet away, leaning against the wall of the building, covered in blood, clothes torn. Her legs were broken, her right arm was broken, she could see a rib poking out of her....

"Oh Kami...." 18 cried, hurrying over and dropping down beside her, eyes burning with tears. She could see the blood streaks on the floor, the scrapes on Marron's legs. The girl had crawled this way, tried to crawl out of the building, but had run out of strength and stopped, resting against the wall.

"18?" Marron asked, almost too softly to hear.

"I'm here...." 18 said, reaching a hand out toward her but then stopping, terrified that just touching her would hurt her more. Would be too much for her fragile and broken body and kill her. "Oh, Kami... Marron.... I'm sorry... Sorry I didn't get here sooner...."

"You... knew?" Marron asked. She couldn't believe 18 would have known about this, but then, she couldn't believe it had happened, either.

18 blinked. "Knew?" she asked.

"This...."

"No." 18 shook her head. "Bulma... Bulma said you'd gotten a job here." she explained. "I was passing already, going back to Saiya...." 18 swallowed as she forced her voice to stay even. "I wanted to see you... Bulma said... said you were happy and... and... and...." She couldn't fight it anymore and her vision blurred as the tears started down her cheeks. "Why...? What... what happened?"

Marron stared at her for a moment, crying as well, forcing her mouth and throat to work despite the pain, despite the fact the world around her was fading away. "Trunks...." she managed.

"Trunks? Where is he? Did he go after...."

Marron shook her head, slowly. "Him." she forced out.

18 froze again. Wholly and completely. Her mind was numb. _"No. That can't be... I must have... must have misunderstood."_ she thought. Her mind cleared and started working again when she heard Marron cough, saw more blood come out of her mouth. "T-Trunks...." the Cyborg started, staring at her dying daughter in disbelief. "Trunks did... did this?"

Marron closed her eyes and nodded once, slowly, barely. It was all she could manage.

18 couldn't think. She couldn't process it. _"Why? Why would he do this? Why would he attack them? Why would he attack Marron? Why would he kill her?"_ And as she gazed at her daughter more things about her appearance came into focus. The torn clothing that had clearly been ripped apart. The bruises on her arms and legs. _"Oh... no.... Oh Kami, no... she...."_ She closed her eyes and swallowed again, forcing her empty stomach not to try and empty itself anyway. It didn't make any sense, none of it. Why would he...? How could he...?

She was brought back to the world by Marron coughing again. Her daughter's eyes were still closed. Her power reading was now only 0.9 and still going down. She didn't have much more time. Not even a minute left. Her breathing was shallow, wheezing. More blood was coming out of her mouth. Punctured lung, filling with blood. Who knew how many other internal injuries.... All of them slowly killing her daughter right before her eyes. She couldn't put what she was seeing and Trunks together, it didn't seem possible.

She knew what he was like, of course. She'd been down to the holding cells with him before. But this was different. This wasn't some prisoner. This was her daughter. Her life. Her heart and soul. Her everything. Not someone threatening the Empire. Not someone dangerous. She just couldn't see how.... She moved over to the wall beside her daughter as Marron began to fall over and caught her, laying her head gently down in her lap, stroking her hair. Marron tried to say something but all that came out was more blood. She tried again, anyway, she wanted to let her mother know, but 18 put a finger over the girl's lips and shook her head.

"Don't talk. It's ok." she said softly. "You're going to be ok, now." She wasn't even sure if Marron could hear her. She could barely hear herself through he rampaging thoughts in her mind. If it was Trunks, if it truly had been him, and Marron had no reason to lie about that, then she had to know. She had to know _why_. But she couldn't leave her daughter. Couldn't leave her to die alone. So she just sat there, cradling her daughter, crying, and waiting for her to die. She couldn't even bring herself to end it sooner, to spare her daughter the pain.

She wasn't really sure how long she sat there. She stayed until she couldn't hear her daughter's strained breathing anymore. Until she couldn't feel the gentle pulse of her heart anymore. Until she stopped moving and just lay there, still, quiet. Until her scanner no longer registered her presence. Until her own tears finally began to subside enough for her to see. Until the raging storm in her mind finally faded enough for her to think. _"Trunks.... I don't see how.... How he could have...."_ She shuddered and fought the urge to clutch Marron tighter. Her daughter was in bad enough shape already. _"It's his style, though."_ she thought suddenly, gazing over the damage. _"It's got his signature all over it. Where.... What?"_ Suddenly words had flashed up in front of her eyes.

FAILSAFE FIVE ACTIVATION - SECURITY LOCKOUT ENGAGED

_"What is...?"_ she wondered. And then she 'felt' it. Her link in with the Empire's network, her constant connection to Gero's computers.... It was gone. Sealed. She hadn't known anything about a fifth failsafe, though. Just the four. And this one made no sense, it sealed her off from Gero's computers, from outside intervention. The tracer was off, she couldn't be tracked, and with this lockout in place he couldn't shut off her generator, put her into a coma, or blow her up. She pushed all of that aside for now, though, and focused on finding Trunks.

_"Now, where is he?"_ She pushed her scanner back up to full sensitivity again. She didn't see any powers that seemed like him, nothing over thirty within a twenty mile range. And then there was a sudden spike. A power jumped from 10 to 5,000. Then came the explosion. 18's eyes narrowed as she slid out from under Marron, laying her out gently on the floor, arms crossed over her body. As she stood she looked at her bloody hands, hands now soaked in her own daughter's blood, and her eyes narrowed further.

"Wait for me here, Marron. I'll pay them back for this, I promise." she said, turning. "I wont be long." She walked away from her daughter then and out the door, eyes scanning the sky for some sign of her target. There was another power spike, 10 to 5,000, and she locked onto it. Clenching her bloody hands into fists as she lifted into the air and took off toward the power near the edge of the complex.

She followed the power reading and found she'd been right. It lead her to exactly who she was looking for. Despite recognizing the blue bodysuit, and the red, white, and gold armor of a Royal, her mind still struggled to accept the truth. As she neared she saw him stop in his flight and then fire off a few Ki blasts toward the outskirts of the compound destroying a couple more buildings. She didn't know what he was up to but at this point she didn't really care, she knew now that Marron had been right.

Still undetected, she pulled to a stop behind him, tears still rolling down her cheeks. She raised a blood soaked hand and clenched it into a fist, fighting the urge to simply blast him where he floated. She wanted answers first. "You took her!" she cried. "You took her away from me!"

Trunks eyes snapped wide in disbelief, and a little fear, as he recognized that voice. And the implications of her statement. "18...." he said, turning slowly.

"Shut up!" she shouted. Anger dripping from her voice more than he'd ever heard. Her body was shaking as she fought to keep control of herself and the Prince wasn't sure how long she'd be able to do that. "You killed her! And you... you...." her voice caught in her throat and a mix of hate and despair flashed across her face for a moment. The hate soon won out, however. _**"WHY!?"**_ she suddenly demanded.

"I'm sorry, 18." Trunks said slowly, picking his words carefully. "But she was dangerous."

"Dangerous!?"

Trunks nodded. "She had a power flare up a while back." he explained. "She was as powerful as Gohan, and that may not have been the full extent of her power." He sighed and shook his head. "I know how you feel right now, Bra's not going to be happy about this either, but we had to do what was best for...."

"We?"

"My father...."

18 growled. "I should have known! He ordered this, didn't he?"

Trunks nodded again. "Yes. But you have to understand...."

"Understand? _Understand_?! _**UNDERSTAND**_!?" she cried. A sudden burst of power blew her hair out behind her and pushed Trunks back through the air. He swallowed as he watched her shake more. He'd never seen her like this before. Ever. "I understand. You say she was dangerous. _I don't care_! She was my _daughter_! My _**daughter**_! She was... was all I had left of...."

The words trailed off but the sentence finished itself in her mind several times over. All she had left of her past. All she had left of her humanity. All she had left of Krillin. All she had left of everything worth living for. All she had left of what kept her sane. Her eyes darkened suddenly and the shaking stopped. That made Trunks even more worried.

"Go to hell." she said at last, softly. And then, yelling at the top of her lungs... "Go to _**HELL**_!" suddenly she thrust her arms forward and fired a massive ball of golden energy toward the shocked Hybrid. Trunks managed to collect his thoughts and transformed at the last second, catching the attack with his hands. As soon as he felt it pushing against his palms his eyes widened even more. She'd put a lot of her power into this. If he'd not transformed he'd be dead right now. She wasn't playing around.

He gulped and then pushed the energy off sending it hurtling into space. "18, don't do this!" he called. "Get a hold of yourself. You keep this up and...."

"And what?!" she yelled. "You'll kill me, too? Well, I'm going to make you work for it!" As she'd been talking a soft blue light had begun forming around her body. Trunks thought he felt something, it was nagging at the back of his mind, but he couldn't place what the sensation was. And he didn't have time to think about it right now, anyway. He dashed to the side quickly as the energy disc 18 had pitched sped through the space he'd just occupied. She turned and threw five more but he dodged them all without trouble.

"Knock it off!" he yelled. "I don't want to have to kill you!"

"Too bad!" 18 growled as she pulled back a little. "I _do_ want to kill _you_!" As she spoke her eyes darted about and her scanners checked for power levels. There were some, but not many, and most of them were fading anyway. She placed her hands in front of her stomach, fingers bent in to point at each other, and then red energy began to gather between her hands. "If I die in the process...." she continued. Her voice darkened to match the look in her eyes. "Then so be it."

Trunks eyes widened. He'd never heard 18's voice so... cold. And the attack she was forming.... In a flash of gold he shot in at her before she could finish forming it, thrust his arm down under her hands and up, slamming his fist into her stomach, doubling her over and causing her gathered energy to disperse. "Planning to destroy the planet, eh? You really are serious. Unfortunately for you, making an attack like that takes more time than I'll give you."

18 scowled at him and swung her left fist at his face. He didn't bother to move, even as strong as she was she couldn't hurt him when he was transformed. Her fist smashed into his face and knocked him sailing backwards in complete shock. _"What... but... how!?"_ his mind cried. That had actually hurt. As he looked at her he saw that the blue glow of before had intensified considerably now. _"An... aura? But... she can't produce an aura and that doesn't look like any aura I've ever seen before, either."_

He shook it off as she charged at him again and the two locked into close combat, a furious flurry of punches and kicks, dodges and blocks. He couldn't believe it, he was actually having trouble with her. What's more, as the fight went on, she seemed to be getting faster, stronger. This just didn't make any sense! He let out a yell as he transformed to the second level, the blast of force knocking 18 back a few yards. Trunks scowled as the blue aura around 18 grew even stronger yet.

He launched in at her again, slammed his knee into her stomach and then interlocked his fists and slammed them into her back driving her down into the ground. He relaxed a little at that point. He'd put enough power into that she should be out cold. But then blue light began seeping through the dust cloud and then the dust began to swirl as a scream sounded from below. And then he felt it, a power. Ki. And it was coming from 18!

Suddenly the dust cloud exploded apart and the building Ki subsided some, settling at around his own Super Sai-jin power. This sensible energy wasn't the only thing that had changed about the Cyborg, either. Her appearance was different. She was several inches taller now, making her almost six feet, both sides of her face, from her jaw line up to her hair line, were now blue, and her pupils and irises were both now purple.

And her hair... it was shorter and the style was different. It hung down off of her head in large clumps, two framing her face, two on either side of her head, and it looked like three in back. Thanks to her being a natural blonde it looked almost like upside down Super Sai-jin hair. Trunks didn't know what had just happened but he was sure it wasn't a good thing. He hadn't gotten a feel for just how much power she'd been putting out before and didn't know if what he could sense was the extent of it or not.

In a flash of gold he surged down at her and pulled back his fist. _"Sorry 18. I like you but you've become too much of a problem. I don't have any choice but to kill you. I'll make it quick."_ he thought, channeling energy into his fist. He'd finish her with this blow. Reaching her, he thrust his arm forward and slammed his fist into her face with a thunderous crack. But she didn't even flinch.

"Good-bye, Trunks." she said, raising an arm and pressing a palm against his chest, over his heart. "I'll send your father to join you in Hell eventually. I swear it." And then he felt her power shoot up through the roof. He'd barely even processed it before a blast of blue energy punched clean through his chest, where his heart had been. He was flung up and back, going a hundred yards before hitting the ground. He was dead before did.

18 lowered her hand and turned back toward where Marron's body lay. She still had extra space pods with her, she'd take her daughter with her and find a proper place to bury her. She closed her eyes and let out a long sigh as the blue skin faded away and she shrank to her normal height. "I wonder if that was Gero's doing...." she thought out loud as she took off to recover her daughter's body.

Landing outside what was left of the main command center for the complex 18 stepped inside again and gazed down at her daughter. Her anger and despair welled up and fought with each other as she looked at her, battered and broken. "I... never even got to ask you... why you were happy." she said sadly, as she knelt down and gently lifted her up. Floating into the air she flew out the door and back toward her and Faith's pods. As she did she checked over the recording she'd made and tried to connect to the ComNet, but she couldn't get past the solar flare's interference.

A second later she was landing by the pods, Faith staring at her in shock. "Is... is that...?"

18 nodded. The sight of Faith forced her anger even higher in her. She wasn't angry at the woman but at what she'd been forced to do on Leberion for an Empire that had already turned on her, already condemned her daughter to death. She carefully laid Marron down inside the pod she'd used to come to the planet, then fished out her capsule case. "It looks like... it's not much safer for you here than back on Leberion." she said, pulling out another Space Pod and decapsulating it.

"What? Why?"

"Because I'm not a Master anymore." replied 18. "And they know you were with me and will know, before long, that I know about this." 18 then pulled another Capsule out of the case and opened it. This time revealing what looked like a large satellite dish.

Faith blinked a few times. "Wait... you mean that... the Masters... the Masters did this...?"

18 nodded. "Vegeta ordered this. Trunks...." her voice caught in her throat and she froze for a second. "Looks like you and I have just traded places. Now _I'm_ out to bring them down." And with that she patched into the transmitter unit and linked in with the ComNet.

She had a video to send out.


	32. Masters No More

A/N: This is, by far, my favorite chapter in this fic so far, with my favorite scene.

_Chapter Thirty-two - Masters No More_

Pan sighed as she tossed her towel onto the bed and then started digging through her bag for clean clothes. "Cooler needs to get better water heaters." she said, fishing out a few items.

17 laughed. "The water heaters are fine." he said. "The problem is that you take two hour long showers. I mean, look at your fingers. I've seen raisins with less wrinkles."

Pan pulled her head up out of her bag and stuck her tongue out at 17 before going back to digging out the rest of her clothes. Once she had everything out she sat down on the bed and started getting dressed. "So, how much longer do you think we're going to be here?" she asked.

17 sighed and shrugged. "This mess with Cold is jamming everything up." he said. "Cooler's fighting with Frieza over majority control of the galaxy too much to do much else. We're probably going to be stuck here a while, yet." He turned from the computer and looked over to her just as she was straightening out her shirt. "You could always fly back to Saiya for a while, hang out with Bra until she goes to Gorneo to visit Marron. It would give you something to do, at least."

"I've got plenty to do here." Pan replied, smirking. "I just have to work a little harder at getting it."

17 laughed again. "Not that hard." he said.

This time Pan shrugged and grinned. "I've got natural charm." she said, walking over, sitting in his lap, and wrapping her arms around his neck. "And I've gotten plenty of practice at putting it to use."

"You know, this would have been a lot more effective if you hadn't gotten dressed first." he said, kissing her.

"Aw, but then we'd miss out on half the fun." she said after he broke the kiss. "Besides, I'm just being a tease right now, I've actually got plans elsewhere."

17's eyes widened in mock shock. "You, a tease? Never!" She scowled at him and smacked him lightly. "So, what are these 'plans' of yours, and should I be concerned?"

"Nah, nothing to worry you about." she said. "While I was out exploring the palace some the other day I got to talking with a few of the staff and expressed how bored I was here. There may not be much in the way of entertainment here but apparently there _is_ a pretty active club."

"A club?" he asked, surprised.

"Staff run." she explained. "A lot of the staff here are from less... boring races than the Changelings. So they converted an unused dinning hall into a club. Lights, music, alcohol, the whole deal. And I've got a personal invite. Apparently they think...." Pan cleared her throat and did her best imitation of one of those airy, ditzy, type voice. "'It would be, like, totally awesome to have a Master come by.' I figured, what the hell, why not? It probably beats staying up here and watching some dumb movie."

"Dumb movie? Was or was not that you crying at the movie you watched last night, hmm?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"And if you _ever_ tell _anyone_ about that you'll be talking with a higher voice than me for the rest of your life." Pan threatened, smirking.

"Wouldn't thi...." The Cyborg trailed off as his terminal started beeping, loud and high. Looking back he saw the flashing 'Priority Message' notice. Pan saw it, too, and slid off his lap to sit beside him as he clicked off the notice and pulled up the message. It was just two simple words of text. "Watch alone?" 17 said, confused, as he read it.

"Watch what?" asked Pan. "And who's it from? I thought all Priority Messages like these had to be signed?"

The Cyborg started to shake his head but then he saw infinity symbol at the bottom of the message, where the signature usually went. At least, at first glance that was what it was. But he knew better. It was 18's coded signature, the one she used when she was sending a message in secret. He hesitated for a moment, she had said to watch it alone.... He knew he could show Pan anything, she wouldn't cause him problems, but he was worried he'd cause her some if she saw whatever his sister sent. Then again, he knew her well enough to know she'd not just go quietly, and probably wouldn't go at all.

"It's from 18." he said at last. "She hacked the ComNet to send it."

"Hacked the... why?"

"Let's find out." he said, tapping the screen over his sister's coded signature. The message vanished and was replaced by an image. Down in the bottom right corner were the words ANDROID 18 INTERNAL RECORDING and up in the top left was a time stamp not more than twenty minutes old.

"What... the...." Pan breathed, as she gazed at the destruction on the screen. "17, do you know where this is? What this is?"

The Cyborg shook his head. "No. Leberion, maybe?" he suggested. "That was where she was going last, right? Replacing me?"

"I don't know...." Pan said, looking back at the screen. The video was now standing outside of a nearly destroyed building and there were notations of power readings on the screen. Levels and the expected conditions of their owners based on the nature of the levels. All of them were marked as dying. And then she heard 18's voice, Marron's name, and her stomach clenched as the woman came into the frame. "By the Kais...." Pan whispered, eyes widening. "That's...."

17 nodded but was barely listening to Pan, his focus was on the audio track of the video. His sister was kneeling beside her daughter now and 17 could tell Marron wouldn't make it long. In fact, going by the time stamp, she was likely already dead.

"Who could do...." Pan started, but she trailed off as 18 asked the same thing. "What!?" Pan cried, eyes widening further. "Why would Trunks... that doesn't make sense...."

17 glanced over at her, then back at the screen. _"Vegeta ordered this, he must have."_ he thought. _"But why? Marron saved Trunks's life, I thought for sure that would keep her safe. And she would have been an extra insurance policy for keeping 18's loyalty. Did... did they decide to hunt down and eliminate all the Humans in the Empire? And do they know 18 knows? If they do...."_ And then, suddenly, 'FAILSAFE FIVE ACTIVATION - SECURITY LOCKOUT ENGAGED' appeared over his vision and he blinked in confusion. And then he saw it again, only this time it was on the video file that 18 had sent.

"What's that?" asked Pan.

"I'm... not sure." 17 replied. "But I just saw it myself, in my own systems.... Wait, my tracer is off, and my link to Gero's computers is closed...."

"You mean... he can't use any of those failsafes on you or 18 now? The bomb and stuff?"

"I... don't think he can." he replied slowly. It didn't make sense to him that such a system would exist. It made the other failsafes pretty much worthless. He pushed it aside for now so he could focus on the screen. 18 was just leaving Marron, no doubt to try and locate Trunks, and he wanted to know how this turned out. Had his sister sent him this just before her death?

He glanced over to his side as he felt a hand on his shoulder and saw Pan looking up at him, concerned. "She'll be ok, you'll see." she said. He smiled at her, though barely, and then turned back to the screen. 18 had found Trunks. "Vegeta ordered...." Pan said slowly, eyes losing their focus. Now it was 17 who was looking at her with concern. They both knew full well that Vegeta never made a move like this without talking to Kakkarotto and Gohan first. Which meant that if _Vegeta_ ordered it then so had _they_.

"But... my dad and grandfather...." she said, slowly. "They wouldn't... they couldn't.... Could they?" Pan asked, looking up at 17.

He closed his eyes and sighed. "Pan...." He sighed again and opened his eyes. "If they agreed with Vegeta that she was dangerous....."

Pan closed her eyes now. "Yeah. You're right." she said, quietly. "But... it's not... Marron wasn't a threat. The people at that facility weren't even part of this!"

17 wasn't sure what to say to her, and beyond that he was concerned for 18. She and Trunks were fighting now and he couldn't see any way for her to beat him. It was looking like she _had_ sent this just before her death. One last act, a way to get the truth out. No doubt Vegeta had planned some sort of cover story for this, and could probably pin 18's death on the Leberion Resistance, if needed.

"What the...." Pan breathed.

17 looked back at the screen again and stared on in shock. 18 had just punched Trunks, a Super Sai-jin Trunks, and sent him flying. Then, suddenly, he transformed again and slammed her into the ground and he winced. But the video kept going, the image was moving like 18 was getting up. And then her screaming started, the video went blue for a second, and then the dust was gone and Trunks was staring down in shock. Then he was charging, his arm coming back for a punch, and 17 turned away not wanting to see what happened.

"Oh... oh my...." Pan said, slowly, right after a loud crack. Then he heard 18's voice just before Pan's came back again. "How is she.... No way!"

17 looked back just in time to see the hole through Trunks's chest before the Hybrid fell off the frame. "How...? He was at the second level...."

Pan shook her head. "I don't know either." she said. "But his punch... she didn't even react. The video didn't even shake." 18 then turned from the downed Trunks and flew back back to where Marron's body lay. As she picked the woman up the screen went black again. The video was over.

"Pan...." he said slowly, turning to face her. He didn't want to do this but... 18 was his sister. He was all she had now, he couldn't let her do this by herself.

"You're going after her, aren't you?" Pan asked, looking up at him. He nodded. "To help, not to stop, right?" He nodded again. "Well, I'm coming too."

"No, I can't let...."

"Uh-uh, no, don't even." Pan said, shaking her head. "You're my Mate. Where you go I go, you know that. Besides, I can't just pretend I didn't see that." she glanced over to the blank screen for a moment before turning back to him and continuing. "Staying here would be the same as agreeing with what dad, grandfather, and Vegeta did, and I _don't_. I don't want _any_ part of that."

17 nodded. "Alright then." he said. "Let's get our things together and go."

"Wait." said Pan, turning back to the screen again. "Can you... can you send this out to someone else?"

XXX

Bra lay in bed staring at the ceiling and waiting. Waiting for her ComStation to beep. Waiting for Marron to call her after settling in at Gorneo. She felt rather stupid, and somewhat pathetic, to just be laying there waiting like that. That was something the sappy romantics in the soap operas did, the ones she was always making fun of. But she couldn't help it, she didn't want to chance not being there when Marron called. _"So I'm pathetic, that's fine."_ she thought. _"I can deal with being pathetic if it makes me feel this happy."_

She practically jumped out of bed when her ComStation beeped a moment later. Rushing over she flicked it on and her smile faded, just slightly, when she saw Pan instead of Marron. 17, she could see, was behind her doing something over at the bed. "Hey, Pan." she said. "What's up?" Pan didn't say anything for a moment, just sat there looking upset. "Pan?" she asked, getting worried herself.

Finally, Pan sighed and shook her head to clear it some. "Bra... 17 and I... we just...." she stopped and tried another method. "18 sent a video to us. Something she... she recorded herself. From Gorneo. You told me the other day... about you and Marron so... I thought...." She sighed. "It wont be easy to watch but... you have the right to see it, to know."

Bra blinked. She hadn't known 18 was on Gorneo and she couldn't think of anything that could have happened that would have the Cyborg sending 17 and Pan a video, or that would have Pan acting like this. "What's happened?"

"Here." Pan said, pushing something on her end. A flashing notice came up in the corner of Bra's terminal that she had a video file. Reaching out she brought it up and started watching. From the instant she saw the billowing black clouds she knew she wasn't going to like what she saw. How could this be Gorneo? But the matter was settled when Marron came into the frame. Beaten, bloody, broken, and dying. Tears burned her eyes and she nearly screamed in fear, anger, and despair, but she forced it down, forced the emotions away, so that she could see and hear and understand.

She sat and watched. Sat and listened. Sat quietly and absorbed everything. _"Trunks... how... how could you?"_ she thought, shocked. _"Why would you...?"_ She reached up and rubbed her eyes, wiping away the tears so they wouldn't make her miss anything. _"FATHER!?"_ her mind screamed, as Trunks explained why he'd done what he'd done. And then the bit before, about the power spike, registered in her mind. _"No... he... he told him! He told him after telling me he wouldn't! __**Bastard**__! I'm going to...."_

But her train of thought trailed off then. Trunks and 18 were fighting and the Cyborg was giving it her all. Then came the blow that knocked Trunks flying, the transformation to level two, and then 18's attack. Bra couldn't believe it. She just sat there, wide-eyed and stunned. Her brother had killed Marron, on her father's orders, and now he was dead.... And she was only disappointed that she hadn't been the one to do it. She shook herself, then, as she realized Pan was talking to her.

"Bra? Are you... ok?"

"Y-yeah." she managed. "I... I'm ok. Oh... Kami...." she started as the tears started burning at her eyes again. The sadness seemed to be pushing everything else out of her mind at the moment.

"17 and I are leaving." Pan said.

"Leaving?"

"Yeah. We're going to go meet up with 18. I don't... I don't know when I'll see you again, if it all."

"Don't be stupid." said Bra, the sadness suddenly being erased by her anger. "You'll be seeing me as soon as I get wherever you're going. I'm not staying here, not with... with _him_. Forget it."

"I thought you might feel that way."

XXX

Vegeta frowned as he tapped his fingers against the table. This meeting was not getting anything accomplished at all. Frieza and Cooler were bickering almost non stop. He'd never realized just how much of an influence Cold had over the two of them. Without the elder Changeling there to filter interactions between his sons they were all but trying to kill each other. Piccolo had tried, more than once, to be the voice of reason, but he kept getting drowned out. Cell spent most of the time just smirking as he watched the Changelings fight, he'd never gotten along with them as it was.

Gero was still down in his lab, apparently. He'd sent Videl up to take his place at the meeting. Which likely meant he still hadn't managed to establish any kind of contact with Gorneo. He wasn't really worried about Trunks, not after knowing he'd transformed, but he did want to know what had happened just the same. If Trunks had had to kill the Cyborg or not. Cover wasn't really needed at this point, that had been mostly for 18's sake, but he was still a bit concerned about Bra's reac....

His mind snapped back to the conference room as all heads turned toward the door that had just banged open. Bra was standing in the doorway, jaw clenched, eyes red from crying, tear streaks evident on her cheeks, and a look of half-controlled fury in her eyes that he'd never seen before. "I thought you might like to know, father." she said in a quiet and strained voice, barely above a whisper. "Trunks is dead."

Bulma gasped beside Vegeta while he just blinked a few times and then frowned.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"Dead." she replied. "D. E. A. D. Dead. Like Marron."

_"Like Mar... how does she...."_ Vegeta stood up and stepped around the table, walking toward Bra. "What do you mean?" he asked. "How do you know...?"

"About what you did?" she asked, glaring at him. "What you had Trunks do? Because I saw. Because 18 saw and she showed 17 and Pan and they showed me. Marron told 18 before she died, Trunks told 18 when she confronted him, before she killed him."

_"This doesn't make sense."_ Vegeta thought. _"I saw Trunks's power spike from his transformation."_

"Don't you have anything to say?" she asked.

"Vegeta... what's she talking about?" asked Bulma. Vegeta glanced back at her, and then at the others, and frowned.

"I'm talking about Gorneo." said Bra, before he could say anything. "About the orders father gave to Trunks, to kill Marron." Bra was starting shake from her pain and sadness as she stood there, her eyes were burning again but she refused to let herself cry in front of her father. Anger was something he understood far better, anyway.

Vegeta turned back to her. "We'll talk about this lat...."

"NO!" she screamed, her power snapping out and ruffling his hair. "No later! We're going to talk about this _now!_" Vegeta scowled at her and she scowled right back. "There was no reason, no _reason_!" she cried. "She... she was...." She turned her head aside and closed her eyes as the tears started anyway, despite her efforts to avoid them.

"Trunks told me you had an interest in her." Vegeta said. "But the fact is she was dangerous. According to him you were there when...."

"I told him not say anything!" she yelled. Her head had snapped back up and she was back to glaring at her father again, tears still running down her cheeks. "I begged him and he said he wouldn't. That _bastard_ promised. He _promised_ me and then he told you anyway. He got what he deserved!"

"Bra!" Bulma cried.

"Sorry mom, but I mean it." she said, shaking her head. "I'm just sorry _I_ wasn't the one to do it."

"That's enough!" Vegeta growled. "I did what was best...."

"You did... what was best....?" Bra said, slowly, hands clenching into fists and her whole body shaking now with anger. "She_ was__** my MATE!**_" she screamed, her aura suddenly bursting to life. "And you... you _dare_ tell me it was what was _**best**_?! _**BASTARD!**_" There was a sudden burst of gold and then two thunderous cracks almost at the same time. It took Bulma and the others a moment to process what had just happen. Bra stood, her right arm still out stretched, her hair golden and spiky, and Vegeta lay on the floor, slumped against the wall on the opposite end of the room, rubbing his jaw.

The first crack had been her fist hitting Vegeta's face, the second had been Vegeta hitting the wall. The girl panted as she stared at her father, still scowling. Finally she lowered her arm and sighed, her hair falling back down again. "Mom... I'm sorry...." she said, shaking her head. She glanced over to Videl then and sighed again. "So is Pan." And, with that, she turned and left, slamming the door closed behind her.

"Pan's sorry?" Videl asked. "What does she mean?"

"I don't know...." Bulma said quietly, still absorbing everything.

"I think you should fill us in." said Piccolo, as Vegeta got to his feet. "I think we all get the gist of it, but...."

"Marron had some sort of power spike." said Gohan. "It was back while dad and I were fighting Buu. According to Trunks she was near my own base level." He sighed. "That level of power... she could have killed any of us if our guard was down, and that's without any combat training at all. So, we decided...."

"You knew?" asked Videl, looking over at Gohan. He nodded and she sighed. "Of course you did."

"So you sent Trunks?" asked Bulma, feeling sick.

"We were going to have him stage an attack by Slug." said Kakkarotto, shrugging. "We couldn't just kill Marron, not with 18's state of mind, not so soon after the destruction of Earth. I don't know how she found out, though."

Bulma closed her eyes. "I told her." she said. "Sort of. I told her about Marron's posting when she called earlier, on her way back from Leberion. She was already near the planet so she decided to go visit."

"And showed up while Trunks was in the middle of his mission." said Vegeta. "I couldn't get him on his scouter and by the time I got to Gero's lab to have him contact the planet the ComCenter was already out. We tried to shut down 18 but there was interference in the system from solar flares. Then he got locked out of her systems completely." He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. "But this makes no sense!" he cried at last. "I didn't leave Gero's lab until I saw Trunks's power spike up to show he'd gone Super Sai-jin. 18 doesn't have that kind of power...."

"She wouldn't need it." said Bulma. "She can do energy discs, remember?"

Vegeta glanced over at her and then scowled. He _had_ forgotten about that. If she'd fired one off that had caught him.... "Damn it." he muttered, closing his eyes again. He was about to say more when there was a sudden beeping from one of the monitors. "Answer." he said to the computer, opening his eyes and looking to see what had happened now.

"Sirs." the soldier said, nodding, as he appeared on the screen. "Um... I figured you'd want to know...."

"Know what?" Vegeta demanded.

"Uh, well, Mistress Bra was just down in the hangar bays." he said. "She... she kicked her crew out of her ship and launched. We... lost the transponder and locator signals a few seconds later." He shook his head. "We don't know where she went after that and... well... there's no way to trace her...."

Vegeta sighed again. "Understood." he said. The guard nodded and the screen went blank, meanwhile Cooler turned his head to someone off screen and spoke quietly to them. Vegeta knew what he was doing, he was asking about 17 and Pan. "Well?" he asked, as Cooler turned back to look at them again.

"Gone." he said. "Both of them. Transponder and locator disabled as well, just like Bra."

Silence fell over the room then. Trunks was dead, 18, 17, Pan, and Bra were gone. No doubt the latter three were intending to join up with 18 somewhere. Bulma was busy absorbing what it all meant. Her family was all gone now, nearly everything about her life that meant anything to her. Trunks was dead, Bra had left.... And she didn't doubt that Bra would be back eventually, along with the others. Trunks had carried out the orders but Vegeta had been the one to give them. As that thought came to her she turned her gaze over to where he stood and she couldn't help herself.

"Well, I hope you're happy." she said, standing. "All of you." she added, looking toward Kakkarotto and Gohan, both of whom were still stunned from learning of Pan's departure. "Now instead of being down three Masters we're down eight. Two dead, two missing, and four..." she shook her head. "Four _defected_. You _do_ realize that, don't you? They're gone and they're _**not**_ coming back. That's both of your lines, gone, turned against you." She walked away from the table and toward the door. "You did more damage in one _stupid_ action than anyone else has ever managed." And with that she pulled open the door and was gone.

Videl stared after her and then stood up as well. "She's right, you know. All of this? It's your own doing."

"Videl...." Gohan started.

"No." she said, shaking her head. "I don't want to hear it. In fact, I don't want to see you again for a while. Find somewhere else to sleep." she said, leaving as well.

"What... what about the failsafes?" Gohan asked, looking away from the door Videl had just went through. "Can't we track 17 and 18 that way?"

Vegeta shook his head. "Not 18, at least. I don't know about 17, though I doubt it or he wouldn't be going to join her."

"But... why?"

"Another failsafe, apparently." said Vegeta. "One Gero thought was disabled that caused him to be locked out from their internal systems."

"So we just have to wait for them to surface again?" asked Piccolo, frowning. "Terrific."

"I don't think you've got anything to worry about." Vegeta said. "You're not even in the North Galaxy."

"No, but he is the weakest." said Cooler. "If they decide to try and take us all out.... And with Pan's power they could do quite a bit of damage."

"18's more likely to come here." said Gohan. "She apparently knows that Vegeta gave the order."

"So, now what?" asked Cell.

"Now we end the meeting and I go talk to Gero." said Vegeta. "Find out if there's anything at all we can do." He then turned toward the monitors showing Cooler's and Frieza's faces. "You two, settle out this squabble of yours by tomorrow or _I'll_ settle it for you." And with that, he left the room as well.


	33. Course of Action

_Chapter Thirty-three - Course of Action_

Yemma sighed as he looked at what remained of the sudden influx he'd started getting about thirty or forty minutes ago. Sudden influxes of souls were never a good thing. For the mortal world or for his head. Reaching up he rubbed his forehead and tried to ignore the throbbing migraine while the Oni dragged the latest soul, kicking and screaming, off to the H.F.I.L., the four hundred and seventh one in a row. So far. A new record and a real pain.

"Next!" he boomed, lowering his hand and gazing over his desk to see who was up now. He looked at the woman for a moment, asked her name, her place of death (not that he really needed to as the place of death had been the same for the last seven thousand people), and then started checking his books. As he flipped the page over and scanned down for her name he froze as he found it, and her details. He blinked, looked up from the book, then looked back at the remaining crowd. Just as he looked up past the woman he saw a few more new arrivals, one of which he recognized on sight. Blinking a few more times he looked back down at his books, at the information on the girl, and then flipped through the pages quickly for the information on the person he'd just seen.

XXX

It had been nearly a week, now, since Krillin had caught Bubbles. North Kai was becoming more and more impressed with the progress of his students as the days went by. Mitsuki had hit Gregory just the other day, Enzeru and Mitsuki had, as he had expected, started doing some light sparring almost as soon as Mitsuki had dropped the mallet. Tien was coming really close to hitting the little bug already, and Yamcha had managed to pull out a tuft of Bubbles's hair that morning in a grab for the fast monkey. He'd never seen such quick progress before, but then he'd also never had such determined students with so much riding on their training. All his other students had been dead and training only for the sake of it.

At the rate they were all going he wouldn't be surprised if they had all moved on to his main training by the end of the month. No doubt Yamcha would have Bubbles caught by the end of the day for sure. Once Bubbles was gone, and Tien had hit Gregory, then he'd call in his third assistant and the real training would begin. He could work on the three of them while Krillin and Yamcha caught up. He'd been hopefully optimistic about the Supreme Kai's plan when first learning of it but now.... Now he was convinced it would work, that these five could succeed.

He lowered his sandwich from his mouth before even taking a bite of it as he felt a telepathic nudge in his mind. _"Huh? King Yemma?"_

_"It's been a while, North Kai."_ the large Oni said. _"How goes your student's training?"_

_"Beyond anything I'd hoped."_ the Kai replied.

_"That's good to know."_ said the Oni. _"Your students... they're the ones from Earth, right? Krillin is among them?"_

North Kai blinked. _"Yes, why?"_

_"Well... I've got someone here...."_ he started. _"Well, I was rather shocked about her, you see. I hadn't known of her...."_

_"Why would you have known of her? And what's she have to do with Krillin?"_

_"So, you didn't know either, then?"_

_"Know what?" _North Kai asked, frustrated, as he finally took a bite of his sandwich.

_"About Krillin's daughter."_

The Kai spit his half chewed mouthful of sandwich out as he sat up. _"Kril... his... WHAT?!"_

_"His daughter. Marron. His and 18's daughter. She's standing right in front of me. And if you think __**that's**__ a shock you wont believe who's standing six people behind her."_

_"Don't tell me she's got a twin...."_

Yemma chuckled. _"Hardly. It's Trunks."_

The Kai was now quite glad he hadn't swallowed any of that sandwich or he'd probably have started choking on it as he jumped to his feet and turned toward Yemma's check-in station. _"Trunks? As in the Sai-jin Prince?"_ he demanded. _"How...?"_

_"I looked it up, he was killed by 18 in retaliation for Marron's death."_ replied the Oni. _"Something like this is likely to shake up the Masters quite a bit."_

_"Yes, yes it is. I'm going to poke around a bit. But... Yemma, could you do something for me...?"_

After wrapping up his conversation with Yemma a few moments later, King Kai turned his focus from Otherworld to the mortal world and started adjusting his antenna as he searched. A moment later he had a lock on Saiya and then tracked down Vegeta. He was likely the best one to follow to see what sort of effect this turn of events was having on the Masters, and the universe as a whole. He found the Sai-jin King just in time to see Bra barge in on the meeting. _"Ho ho, the girl's got a good right hook on her."_ he thought, smiling, as he watched her deck Vegeta.

_"Two Masters missing?"_ he wondered a moment later. _"Who's missing? I'll check into that next, but this turn is quite beneficial. 17, 18, Pan, and Bra all now aligned _against_ the other Masters. Too bad it had to cost Marron's life to bring about. Now, let's see if I can find out who's missing...."_ A few moments later, by listening in on more of the conversation, he had his answer.

"Cold and Inferna vanished in the Eye?" he mused aloud. "Interesting. If they had died I'm sure word would have reached me by now. The death of a Master is always big news around here." He blinked a few times and turned to look toward his students. Krillin was just picking up the mallet to have his second go at hitting Gregory. The Kai cleared his throat and made his way over to them before the bug began his charge. "Hold on a moment." he said.

"What's up, North Kai?" Krillin asked, setting the mallet back down.

"There's been a... turn of events in the mortal world." the Kai explained.

"That evil Buu's not back, is he?" asked Enzeru.

The Kai shook his head. "No, no, nothing like that." he replied. "This is a... mostly good turn, mostly good news. I say mostly because while the turn is good for us the cause... well, you'll understand after I explain." He took a deep breath and smoothed out his clothes. "Half of the good news is that two Masters are missing, Cold and Inferna, gone without a trace, and that there's been another death of a Master." he said at last. "This time, it was Trunks."

"Trunks?" Tien asked in surprise. "Who? How?"

"The who is 18, the how I'm not entirely clear on, it was over before I knew it was happening."

"...18?" Krillin asked, shocked. "But... I thought they were... why did she?"

"That leads us to the bit that's not so good." replied the Kai. "18 was retaliating against Trunks for the death of another. The death of a young woman named Marron. Her daughter. _Your_ daughter."

"M-my... _my_ _**d-daughter**_!?" Krillin cried, eyes going wide.

North Kai nodded. "Yes. I don't know all the details just yet, Yemma only contacted me a few moments ago about the whole thing when he found out her relation to you during check-in. Anyway, this then leads us to the rest of the good news. From what I've gleamed from the mortal world it would seem that Marron was, er, romantically involved with Bra. 18 apparently got word out about what happened to her and what she did to Trunks pretty quickly. 17, Pan, and Bra have all defected from the Masters. They're going to join 18."

"No... way...." Enzeru breathed. "They've left? Even Bra and Pan? But... what about the bombs in 17 and 18?"

"Unusable." replied the North Kai. He'd caught that bit of information from Vegeta and gone probing around in Gero's labs for more information. "Another defense mechanism that Gero installed a long time ago." North Kai cleared his throat again. "Now, I pulled a few strings with Yemma and with the Supreme Kai. Yemma is sending Marron to the Grand Kai's world. In fact, she should be there by now. The Grand Kai will then work a little of his magic and call for me to come and get her. With his magic on her the gravity here wont effect her."

"She... she's coming here?" Krillin asked.

North Kai nodded. "Yes. I thought it might be a good idea. Besides, I want to pick her brain for information. Much easier to do with her here than me having to find her up in Heaven. Though the spell the Grand Kai is doing will take some time. It will be more than a week before she arrives here."

XXX

Hearing a knock at her door Bulma lowered her chalk and walked over to check the small monitor beside it. If it was Vegeta she'd just ignore him, she was in no mood to deal with him right now. But it wasn't, it was Videl, so she unlocked the door and let her in. "You ok?" Bulma asked, closing the door again.

Videl shrugged as she plopped into a chair. "Better than you, I figure." she said.

Bulma sighed and nodded. "You're probably right." she said. "I just... I can't believe they'd do something like that. How could they have not realized it would be a very bad idea?" She sighed again. "And I can't help but wonder if I could have stopped this if I'd just told Vegeta about Bra and Marron."

"None of this is your fault." Videl said. "Not what Vegeta and the others did, not what Trunks did, and not 18 catching him at it. Vegeta, Gohan, and Kakkarotto are the only ones at fault here. Them and their damned paranoia and stupidity." Videl leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. "I just wish I knew where Pan was, what she was going to do, that she'd be safe...."

"17's with her. He wont let her do anything foolish." Bulma said, taking her own seat. "And Pan's a strong girl, she can look after herself out there."

Videl laughed. "I think that's what's got Cooler most concerned." she said. "She's the fourth most powerful person in the universe, she's stronger than him. If she'd wanted she could have killed him before leaving without even trying, if he weren't ready for her. Only Vegeta, Gohan, and Kakkarotto are stronger. But... that doesn't make me feel much better. If... if they could do this... then...."

Bulma closed her eyes. She'd had the same thoughts running through her head. If the three of them could so easily order the deaths of everyone at Gorneo just for a cover for killing Marron... could they... _would_ they kill Pan and Bra if they surfaced with the two Cyborgs? "I don't want to believe they could." she said after a moment. "But I'm not sure I can, anymore."

Videl nodded. "Same here." She sighed. "I wish I hadn't let Pan go with 17. If she hadn't been there she wouldn't have seen 18's message to him."

"But he'd probably have still sent it to Bra." said Bulma. "Bra told Pan about her and Marron and Pan tells 17 everything. He would have shown it to Bra and Bra would have told Pan and the two of them would have left together."

"Probably, but then I could have gone with them."

Bulma smiled. "You too, huh?" she asked. "If I'd known Bra was planning on leaving I'd have gone with her, too."

"They'll be back... eventually. I'll try and... try and convince Pan to stay when they come. If I can't... maybe... I'll leave with them.... If they _can_ leave after coming here."

XXX

"So you're locked out of 17 as well?" Kakkarotto asked.

Gero nodded. "I checked as soon as Vegeta came down earlier." he answered. "The notice came in while I was still trying to get some sort of link with Gorneo, I'd say maybe ten or fifteen minutes after Vegeta left for the meeting."

The Sai-jin royal frowned and sighed. That meant that 17 had to have seen the video that Bra had mentioned by then. Which meant that Trunks had been killed shortly after he'd left Gero's labs. "So, we just wait for them to come here and deal with it then." he said.

"17 and 18 wont be an issue... it's Pan and Bra that have me concerned." said Gohan. "I...."

"I know." said Vegeta. "I don't like the prospect much, either."

"We can capture the two of them." said Kakkarotto.

"Yeah, but then what?" asked Gohan. "Lock them up for the rest of their lives? How? Either one of them could smash their way out of anywhere we put them. Besides, they've got eternal youth, the rest of their lives is forever. I think.... Does that end if you quit being a Master, or even work if you quit before reaching twenty?"

Vegeta sighed. "Who knows, it's never happened before. I doubt it, though. Something tells me the Dragon doesn't care about specifics unless told to, and nothing in Cold's wish mentioned _former_ Masters in any form." He crossed his arms and scowled as he leaned back against the wall. "But Gohan is right, Kakkarotto. We can't contain them. It's just not possible. We can try and get them to come back but...."

"They're family." said Gero. "I can understand your situation and I may have a solution."

"How so?" asked Gohan.

"It's not going to be an appealing solution but it is a bit of a... bypass to your dilemma. I still have several unfinished projects that I shelved over the years. With some modifications and upgrades I'm sure I could get something strong enough to deal with even Pan's power." Gero shrugged. "It's not a containment option but it keeps you from having to make the decision yourselves. Program them to go after 17 and 18 specifically, but also have them eliminate anyone that interferes."

"I don't like it." said Kakkarotto. "But as a last resort it's better than nothing. Though how can you be sure these ones wont turn like 17 and 18 did?"

"I have a few ideas for that." Gero said. "I don't think a pure AI would work in this instance. 16 and 19 have shown that even my best AI work still isn't fully reliable. Loyal and compliant, yes, but not fully reliable. I'll go over some of my notes and see what I have."

Vegeta nodded. "Go ahead and start on them. Even if they aren't needed for tracking 17 and 18 we could use the extra man power right now. Bulma was right, we're down eight members now. Inferna was new, Goten, Bra, and Pan didn't do much but.... Losing 17, 18, Trunks, and Cold, especially all so close together, is going to jam up the works for a while without some more hands to handle things."

Gero nodded. "Alright, I'll get to work on them right away." he said. As the three Sai-jins left the room Gero moved over to the console he'd been working at before Vegeta had shown up the first time and pulled up the data he'd been going over then. He gave it a cursory look, made a few adjustments, and then closed it again. Then he turned and made his way across the lab to a large freight elevator that led down to his storage area. A few moments later he was stepping back out of the elevator and flicking on the overhead lights.

The room was cavernous in size. It helped that it had been built inside a cavern. A massive underground cave beneath the palace, converted and modified into a gigantic storage room. Gero had hundreds of unfinished projects stored here. Some he'd discarded after discovering they were impractical, others he'd lost interest in as something better had come along, and many had simply not been possible with his technology of the time. There were also quite a few finished projects and systems down here that he'd locked away after completing, deciding their use was either unwise or impractical.

He bypassed several of his older projects, even a few of the newer ones, as he scanned the room for anything useful. And then he saw them leaning against the wall. Three metal containers that looked quite a bit like coffins, each with a small glass view port near the top. Moving over to them he wiped the dust off the glass and peered in at them, one at a time. They were little more than base shells right now. He'd started on them long before he'd left Earth but his resources and abilities did not match with what he aimed to do. And so they'd been stored and shelved.

"Yes, you'll do nicely." he said, nodding and lifting up one of the heavy metal coffins. "A few tweaks and modifications to your internal designs, a few updates to my current model of generator core, and I think we'll be in business."

XXX

Bra sat in the command chair on the bridge of her saucer ship staring at the monitor before her as her destination quickly approached. Her ship was one of the fastest in the galaxy, though not quite as fast as any of her father's, and it had still taken her nine days to reach Zendavou. It would have only been eight if she hadn't had to slow down and be so cautious while entering the system. The Zendavou system was well beyond hazardous. Old mines left long before the formation of the Empire littered the system, ready to blow any ships that neared into oblivion.

Beyond that, the system's former inhabitants had, for whatever reason, created hundreds of tiny singularities all over the place. Zendavou was the only world that had not been torn apart by the twisting flows of gravity. The other fourteen former planets had been shredded into asteroids, some only a few feet across, others nearly forty miles, a few were over five hundred miles. They made detecting the mines and avoiding them even more difficult than normal as they'd hide them from sensors or bounce a false reading at you making you turn the wrong way.

And all of that was ignoring the havoc that the warring gravity had on ships that tried to navigate through the mess of singularities. Three times Bra had felt her ship shudder as she strayed too close to one of the gravity wells and nearly got sucked in. She hit at least ten of the damned mines, too. She'd never had to navigate her own ship before, let alone try and fly through anything so dangerous. But it made Zendavou an excellent place for them to meet up. Undoubtedly there were various others who used the system and the planet to avoid the Empire, but Bra doubted there were many.

She pushed a few buttons on the arm of her chair and started broadcasting a page down to the planet over the frequency that 17 had given her. A moment later 18's face appeared on her monitor and the blonde's eyes widened. "Bra?" she asked, shocked.

Bra nodded. "Hi, 18." she said. "17 and Pan should be here sometime tomorrow."

"Pan's coming, too?" asked the Cyborg, surprised.

"Yeah. Can you give me your location so I know where to land?"

"Uh, yeah, sure." she said. She moved off screen for a moment and Bra saw trees and blue sky behind for a few seconds. Then her console beeped and she looked down and saw her landing coordinates. "There you go." 18 said, coming back on screen. "I... hadn't expected to see you, though. I'm guessing then that you know about...." the woman hesitated for a moment, as though not sure which word, which name, to end her sentence with. "Gorneo?" she finished.

Bra nodded. "I do." she said. "We can talk after I land. I've never done this before, so...."

"Ok."

The Hybrid turned off the broadcast and went back to watching the planet as she navigated down through the atmosphere. Her ship rocked back and forth like crazy as the wind buffeted it constantly. She nearly flipped the saucer twice from over compensating for the turbulence before, at last, she felt the thing settling onto its landing legs. Five minutes later she was walking out the exit and could see 18 waiting for her. "How are you doing?" Bra asked. It wasn't what she wanted most to know at the moment, but she was worried about 18.

"I'm ok." the Cyborg replied. "Bra... about Trun...."

"Don't." the Hybrid replied, shaking her head. "I would have done it myself as soon as I saw him again if you hadn't." she said.

18 nodded too, not really sure what to say. "I'm... surprised you came out here." was all she managed.

Bra swallowed as she gazed around at the area, she knew telling 18 why she'd come would dredge up her pain again so she wanted to put it off as long as possible. They were in a sizeable clearing in the forest and off to the right she could see open air after a bit. They were up on a high cliff, it seemed. "Do you... do you remember...." she began, turning back to 18, deciding the sooner it was over the better. "When you told M-Marron that my mom said she was happy?" 18 nodded. "Well... it's because we... we were... it's because I... I'd managed to... to tell her. How I felt, I mean. And... she...."

18 smiled. "She felt the same?"

Bra nodded. "Yeah. Well, she wasn't... you know, she wasn't very sure at first. Said she'd never even dated anyone before so... you know. But I think... by the en-end...." Bra shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself. "We only had... six days." she said. She couldn't believe that's all the time they'd had. Six days. Less time than it had taken her to fly to Zendavou. "But by the time she... she left for Gorneo... she... didn't know if it would... would last but was... was at least sure she really did like me."

Bra smiled despite the tears that were burning at her eyes again, and then she turned away. "Damn you Trunks!" she suddenly yelled at the sky. "You promised me you _bastard_!" She calmed down a moment later as she felt 18's hand on her shoulder. Her eyes closed and she fought to get her anger back in check. There wasn't anything around here she could smash so she'd have to try and force it under control.

"I brought her with me." 18 said softly, and Bra froze.

This is what she'd wanted to know, what she'd wanted to ask when she got out of the ship. She'd seen 18 picking up Marron's body at the end of the video. "She's... she's here?" she asked, her eyes burning again.

"Yeah. I wanted to put her to rest somewhere nice. Not in the midst of all that destruction. Somewhere where she wouldn't likely be disturbed. I can... take you to her."

"Please." Bra managed to choke out. 18 nodded and lead her carefully through the trees, toward the open sky she'd seen earlier. After a few minutes they emerged from the forest again and Bra had a clear view of the valley below. Towering trees, snow capped mountains off in the distance, and she could see a river snaking through the forest below. The Cyborg lead her along the cliff ledge for a few more minutes and they came a small grove of trees set apart from the rest of the forest. Even from the outside Bra could see the small mound of dirt inside the grove and the stone set at one end.

The Cyborg lead the Hybrid through the trees and watched in silence as she collapsed on top of the grave, sobbing. "That bastard...." she muttered. "Both of them. I... I couldn't do it.... I wanted to, and he was standing right in front of me, but I... I couldn't do it." Bra swallowed and tried to force her tears to stop so she could talk better. "I punched him, I knocked him into the wall, but I couldn't.... I'm sorry, Marron. It's all my fault, I should have pushed Trunks more not to tell father. I should have warned you about what happened...."

18 turned as she heard soft footsteps behind her and saw Faith approaching, arms full of firewood. "I saw the ship, is your broth...." she stopped then, seeing the girl crying on top of the grave.

The Cyborg shook her head. "No, he's not here yet." she said. "That ship is Bra's. She and Marron became Mates right around the time I left for Leberion."

Faith nodded. "I'd hoped I'd seen the end of scenes like this when I helped you stop Valor."

"Come on, let's leave her alone for now." 18 said, turning and making her way over to the make shift camp she and Faith had set up.

XXX

The more of the writing they translated the more everyone agreed it had to be prophecy. Cold was also convinced that 'False Gods' referred to the Masters. There were references to individual Masters, too, he was sure. 'The One of Many' he felt was Cell, for instance. The 'Ones of Metal' were likely 16, 19, and Gero at the least. Possibly 17 and 18 as well. Though the one refrence to them wasn't really clear. 'The Ones of Metal shall be forged by the False Gods and sent to hunt down the Angels of Death.' There were other references he didn't get at all, though. There was one who was referred to only as 'The Son' and another as 'The Daughter' and these two played a central role in the predicted end of the universe.

From what Cold could tell The Son was the God of Destruction, a being they had yet to find a name for. Meanwhile The Daughter seemed to be the Goddess of Creation. The Souzousha that had the massive statue in the room. The problem was, the Masters had a number of sons and daughters and there was nothing more specific for a description. If it meant first son and first daughter that would be Cooler and Pan. Last son and last daughter would mean Goten and Bra. Assuming, of course, no more were yet to be born. And then there was everyone in between, at least as far as sons went. Daughter, he was sure, had to be either Pan or Bra.

There were also references to other individuals and groups that Cold didn't think were connected to the Masters. 'The Chosen', 'The Angels of Death', 'The Archangel', 'The Harbinger', 'The Herald of Destruction', 'The Fallen One', and 'The Exiles'. A few he had some idea about, like The Exiles. One passage about them went 'And The Exiles shall band together, cast from their people but united in their own purpose, and they shall war against The False Gods and The Chosen and shall free The Fallen One'. Elsewhere The Exiles were said to be led by a 'Tailless One' and a 'Child of the Dragon'. Tailless he'd already linked to the Sai-jins while 'Child of the Dragon' only made sense for a Namekian.

He also felt that 'The Chosen' referred to one of the Resistance groups spread out across the Empire. He couldn't pin down as to which group it was, though. But a few of the passages talked about The Chosen being selected by The Child Gods, a term Cold hadn't been surprised to see, to stand against The False Gods. There was another passage elsewhere that said 'The Chosen shall be equipped by The Child Gods with the means and power to fight even with The False Gods before the End of Days' so he figured whatever group it was hadn't surfaced yet. Anyone capable of standing against the Masters to any degree would be easily noticed. The rest, though, he wasn't sure about. They'd found at least one reference to each so far.

'The Harbinger shall mark the Beginning of the End and shall call forth, upon death, the first of The Angels of Death, and so shall begin the Fall of the False Gods.' was the only line that talked about The Harbinger that they'd found so far. They only had one other reference to The Angels of Death. It said that the second one would appear in defense of a 'Fallen False God' and that the emergence of the second Angel of Death would mark the 'end of the Beginning of the End'. Cold got the impression that, until both Angels had appeared, there was still a chance to stop the events prophesized after them. Once the second had come Armageddon was assured. There was only one refrence, so far, to 'The Archangel', 'And The Archangel, sister of the Daughter and the Angels of Death, shall emerge from The Chosen and power unkown shall be unleashed and the Child Gods shall be no more'.

On the matter of The Herald of Destruction they'd only found two lines. One that said the Herald would 'lay in sleep for decades' and that he would 'begin to wake once the fate of The Harbinger was sealed'. The other said that he would 'seek the blood of the Greatest False God' and 'would destroy all that lay in his path'. Cold was tempted to claim Buu had been the Herald but everything that he felt for sure referred to Buu called it Demon. Besides, it had been trapped for thousands of years, not decades.

The other one, The Fallen One, they only had two lines for. The one saying he would be released by The Exiles and one that said that the death of The Fallen One would awaken the Destroyer, the God of Destruction. It was all rather complex and convoluted and Cold wasn't entirely sure he believed the chain of events caused each other. Perhaps a few of them, certainly, but some of them seemed related just by occurring around the same time. Like the awakening of the Herald and the 'sealing of the fate' of The Harbinger.

Still, it was all giving him an insight into the universe that he'd never dreamed of. He did wish that the writing was more precise in its explanations of things, though. Names would have been nice. He got the feeling that, perhaps, there was no audio to these visions, and thus the scribes of the prophecies had to come up with titles based on what they'd seen of their interactions. If their visions were anything like what the Kanassans got then it was quite likely. Their visions were soundless as well, from what he understood.

The one thing about the writing that irked him was how little of it was actually translatable. He had assumed, as had everyone else, that it was all the same written language. Perhaps the language all current known languages were derived from, to explain how different languages were mixed in together, but just one language on the walls. Their studies had revealed this not to be the case, however. The farther 'back' you went along the wall, the father back in the history of the universe, the more the languages written on the wall became unknown.

In some places the shift was slow and small, in others it was sharp and sudden. The oldest bit they could read was a single line barely even an eighth of the way back along the same wall that the prophecy ended on, and it talked about the birth of the first of the False Gods. Which meant it was about his own birth since he was the oldest Master. Comparatively speaking with the age of the universe as a whole it wasn't that far back. Everything before that was written in languages unknown to anyone with him or Inferna. In one area it looked like a sudden and major shift in language occurred and all of his science team was in agreement, no translation beyond that point would be possible at all.

It was disappointing, to say the least. The fountain of knowledge that the wall presented about the current age was fascinating but he would have loved to have seen how these people had viewed things that had occurred earlier. Perhaps even found stuff talking about them and this world, about who they were, where they went, and what this place was, exactly. Since the wall couldn't tell him he was hoping that the Record Orbs might. That had been the main focus of the bulk of his people the last few days or weeks or however long each of them had been on the task in their own time frame.

So, when Cold heard the shouts coming from back in the circular hall area, and then the thudding of feet, he thought that they'd made some major break through. Instead, when he turned to look, he saw his and Inferna's men running in fear. A moment later he saw why as several dozen creatures came charging out through the doorway into the hall. "Yiku, Rikoo, Fyuu!" Cold called out. "Incoming!"

"On it!" Fyuu called back, directing the other two.

These creatures, whatever they were, would be no match for him, his Guard, or Inferna, and he charged in to the fray of battle as more and more of the beasts flooded into the room. Their powers were all the exact same level, 100,000 on the scouters scattered about the room. Their appearances were all identical as well. Six foot tall, broad shouldered, black exoskeletal armor over shins, forearms, and chest, deep green skin, large glowing white eyes, and powerful legs with knees that bent the opposite way as normal.

Cold heard a cry from in the hall and saw a bright flash of red wash through, blasting several of the attackers into pieces. Then a distinctly different form entered the room. Five foot eight with dark orange skin, dark red natural armor covering shins, forearms, and entire torso, bladed spikes emerging from her forearms, black horns just above her ears about three inches long, ice blue eyes, and bright red hair reaching half way down her back. Inferna, in her second form. "They're everywhere!" she called, blasting several more of them.

"Where are they coming from?" he asked, slicing several in half with the same motion he drew the sword from under his cape with.

She shook her head. "No idea. We were examining a new room when suddenly they started flooding the halls and the room." she said. "There was no warning, they just suddenly came at us."

"The attackers our friends from the orb mentioned, I would expect." said Cold. "Fyuu! Leave them be and get our people outside!" he called. Unlike the previous group and their five thousand people he and Inferna only had a little over twelve hundred men between the two of them. They couldn't afford severe losses. Fyuu nodded, relayed the orders to Rikoo and Yiku, and then started seeing to the escape of the others. "Inferna, let's wipe these things out. Maybe we'll get lucky and our people can learn something from studying them."

Inferna nodded as she blasted another five of the attackers into dust. The two of them kept up the offensive against the attackers as they continued to flood the room. The creatures seemed to realize that the pair were the only threats because, before long, they began to ignore all others and focus only on them, trying to overwhelm them with numbers. But, slowly, the throng of bodies began to subside. Inferna was panting heavily by the time they'd gotten down to the last thirty of the creatures. Once they, too, were gone she collapsed to the ground and reverted to normal trying to get her breath back.

"There... must have been... at least five thousand... of them." she said between breaths.

Cold nodded as he bent over one of the few that was still mostly in one piece. "Odd creatures, these." he said. "All the same, no variance in looks or power. I don't think they're the natives. More like... guard dogs."

"But guarding what?" asked Inferna.

"Something deeper inside this place, most likely." replied Cold. "We'll need to step up security after this. We don't have enough men to risk losing them."

Inferna nodded as she pulled herself back to her feet again. "I'm... going back to my... ship." she said. "I need... to rest."

Cold nodded again. "I'm going to stay here, oversee the clean-up." he said. "In case any more come along."

She gave him a nod and wave and made her way out. He watched her leave and then his men come back inside, slowly and tentatively. None of them noticed the remaining creature behind the statue that peered out around it at them. Or saw it leave the room, running through the halls to some unknown destination.

XXX

Bra looked back over her shoulder as she heard footsteps approaching and saw 18 coming over, a bunch of flowers in her hand. "I hope you don't mind...." the Hybrid said, turning to look at the head stone again.

18 wasn't sure what she'd meant at first, but then she took another look at the stone. All she'd been able to bring herself to do had been to carve Marron's name in the stone. Now, beneath that, it read 'Beloved Daughter And Mate' and under that was a three-quarter profile image of Marron. The image was amazingly detailed and had to have taken hours to carve. "No, it's beautiful." 18 said, laying the flowers down in front of the stone. "I think she'd like it."

Bra just nodded until she realized there were more footsteps approaching and she looked back again and saw Faith nearing. She'd met her the previous day, a few hours after landing, and after the introductions and explanations she had instantly liked her and couldn't stop thanking her. Thanking her for saving 18 in the first place, which she was sure was the only reason she knew the truth about Gorneo instead of some bull story from her father, and thanking her for everything she'd done after the two women had landed here on Zendavou.

Apparently 18 had used the hibernation gas on the way to Zendavou in order to escape from her pain. All it had done, though, was delay it until after they'd landed. The Cyborg had broken down then, she'd barely gotten out of her pod before collapsing into tears and hadn't so much as moved for two days. It had been Faith who had found the tree grove where Marron now lay. Faith who, without any ki control, had dug the grave with just her bare hands. Faith who had gone searching in the forest for a suitable tree, cut it down, and carved it with tools she'd found in 18's Capsule case, to make the coffin that Marron now rested in. After hearing all of that Bra had instantly taken a liking to her.

Then she realized that she was hearing more than just one set of feet and looked behind Faith. "Pan, you made it." Bra said, smiling a little, as she saw her friend nearing, 17 right behind her.

"As if there was ever any doubt with my piloting skills." said 17 as the three of them entered the small grove.

Pan shook her head and knelt down beside Bra. "Don't let him fool you, he was cursing the ship the entire time and I swear we hit at lest a dozen mines." she said softly. Bra laughed, surprised that she even could anymore.

"Well, it's a lot harder getting through that stuff with a ship instead of a pod." 17 said with a shrug. "First time I've ever had to do it."

"Huh?" Bra asked. "You've been here before?"

"Yeah. Zendavou here has been our escape world for years."

"Escape world?" asked Pan. "How come I didn't know about this?"

"We didn't want anyone knowing." said 17. "Telling anyone would have meant the chance of being overheard. We didn't want word getting out to Gero about this place since we decided it would be our meeting place should anything ever happen and we needed to get away from the Empire."

"How come?" asked Bra.

"The 'natural' defenses out in the system." explained 17. "Not just because they make it hard to get here but because the distorted gravity from the singularities jam all signals, even our link up with Gero's computers. The one world we knew of in three galaxies where Gero wouldn't be able to reach us. Not that it matters now with this 'failsafe five' stuff."

"You too?" 18 asked, looking over at him.

"Yeah, just before it popped up on your video." he answered. "Right after I realized you, and in turn me, were now on the outs with the Empire. It doesn't really make sense to me still, though, why Gero would include something like that."

"Who cares why?" Pan asked. "All that matters is now you're free. Really and truly free." 17 just smiled at her and she turned her focus to the head stone of the grave. "Oh, did you do that?"

Bra followed her friend's gaze and saw the drawing of Marron carved into the rock. "Yeah, this morning." she answered. "I wanted to... do something."

Pan nodded. "I'm sorry, Bra." she said, resting a hand on her friend's shoulder. "I can't believe... I can't believe my father and grandfather would do something like this...."

"What do you mean?" asked 18, before Bra was able to make a reply. "Vegeta was the one who ordered...."

"But he wouldn't have if they hadn't approved." said Pan, looking over to the blonde woman. "Vegeta may have given the orders but they let him." She turned back to the head stone then. "I can't believe they'd do that, though. It's one thing to wipe out threats to the Empire, Kami knows I've got blood on my hands for that, but this.... This had no point. Trunks said her power was near that of dad's base, but so what? Piccolo and Cold are both way over that and they've got the lowest resting levels of anyone not a Sai-jin."

"I don't think it was just the power." said 18. "It was her father. No one else's father openly opposed the Empire, or was killed by it. Piccolo's father was just at odds with Kakkarotto because both wanted control of Earth, and Kakkarotto really only fought him for the challenge of it anyway. But Krillin... Krillin was an active Resistance member, constantly causing trouble on Earth. I think if... Marron had had a different father... they wouldn't have reacted like this, just over a simple power spike. I'm sure the only reason she wasn't executed a few days after getting to Saiya was because of her antidote that saved Trunks."

"Father's sense of loyalty." Bra said, nodding. "Seems it can only stretch so far, though." She sighed and looked back at the others. "So, now what do we do?"

18 closed her eyes. "I... still have a promise to keep." she said. "Trunks was... just part of the reason Marron's gone...."

"You want to go after Vegeta?" Pan asked, shocked. "But... Vegeta's way too strong for any of us. His first level alone is almost as powerful as my second."

"I can take him now, I think." 18 said, smiling sadly. "I'm not sure but... I think I can." She sighed and looked over at Bra. "I'm sorry about this but it's something I have...."

"It's ok." Bra said with a shake of her head. "I... I wanted to do it so bad myself before I left. I wanted to but I just... I couldn't bring myself to do it. Even with him standing _right there_. Even with him telling me to my face that he thought he did 'what was best'. But I... I couldn't do it. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. All I could do was punch him into the wall. But just because I couldn't do it doesn't mean I don't think he deserves it. Marron was my Mate. We may have only been together for a short while, we may not have worked out in the end had we been given the time, but the bond was there. I may not be as much of a Sai-jin as dad would like but this is one area where I'm about as Sai-jin as you can get, you kill my Mate and you pay the price."

18 closed her eyes again and nodded.

"Still, how?" asked Pan. "How do you plan to fight Vegeta? What happened on Gorneo, anyway? How were you able to kill Trunks?"

"I'm not entirely sure." 18 said. "Something... happened. I'd felt it starting while I was still sitting and holding Marron, felt it more when I started confronting Trunks." She walked a few steps away from them and then turned to face them. "After Marron was buried I spent some time trying to figure it out and while I still don't understand how or why I do understand how to use it."

"Use what?" asked 17. "What are you talking about?"

"This." 18 said, as she began to glow blue. The light got brighter and brighter and then suddenly flashed like bulb burning out, and then it was gone. Now 18 was taller, her eyes were purple, her hair was different, and the sides of her face were blue. "I've got no idea what it is. I went through all of the files in my head and there's nothing that mentions it. Nothing mentioned that 'failsafe five' either, though, so it could still be something Gero added on purpose. Or maybe it's something he hadn't meant to do that just happened by accident. I don't know and I don't really care."

"Th-that's...." Pan said, wide-eyed. "I can... actually sense your power. But... you're not even as strong as me. Even like this you wouldn't be able to beat Vegeta."

"If the sensable energy is all there is." said 18. "It exceeds my scanners so I'm not sure how high it goes, exactly, but I don't think it's the extent of my power. Why would it be? I still have the generator in me, it's still making power, power that can't be detected. Though, with you here, I can think of a way of at least getting an idea of how much power I have."

Pan blinked. "How?"

"Hit me." 18 said. "Go to your full power and hit me with all you've got. If what you can sense is the extent of it... it'll hurt like hell but I'll survive. If it's not...."

Pan bit her lip and looked up at 17 who just gave her a small nod. "Alright." she said, climbing to her feet. "I'll do it." The group moved away from the tree grove then. 18 walked up to the edge of the cliff and then turned to face Pan who flashed gold once, her hair jumping up into a spiky and unruly mess, and then again, her hair standing up fully on end with just two bangs coming down on either side of her face.

"Remember, don't hold back." 18 said.

Pan nodded as she took a deep breath, pulled her arm back, and then suddenly surged in at 18. 17 and Bra held their breath for the split second it took for Pan to reach the blonde Cyborg. And then there was a loud crack as Pan's fist smashed into 18's chest. The Cyborg didn't even budge. "No... way...." Pan said slowly, shocked, as she floated back from 18. "I gave that... gave that everything I had...."

18 just smiled and then started glowing again as she changed back to normal. "Go get Bra's ship ready for launch." she said. "We'll go say good-bye to Marron and then set out for Saiya."

"Hang on." Pan said, reverting to base herself. "You might be able to handle Vegeta but what about my father? My grandfather?"

"If she challenges Vegeta, one-on-one, they wont step in." said Bra. "He's lost a son, 18's lost a daughter, Sai-jin law gives them both the right to fight the other, without interference, to the death."

"Nothing says they wont interfere if they think they have to." countered Pan.

"Father would never let them. If they tried he'd blast them himself, if he's still got the strength for it."

"So it's settled." said 18. "We leave for Saiya in an hour."

XXX

The creature was far deeper inside the palace than Cold or his people had ever gotten. Deep underground in a room a hundred feet by a hundred feet by eight hundred feet. There were no doors in the room, just four holes in the ceiling, each ten feet across. It was through one of them the creature had entered. In the center of the room was a massive clear crystal. Set along each wall, in their centers, were other crystals. Red, blue, purple, and yellow.

The creature ignored the crystals along the walls and landed before the one in the center of the room. Reaching out a hand it pressed its palm against the crystal and the large stone began to glow. Suddenly the creature vanished, the crystal pulsed, and then darkness returned to the room. The darkness remained only a moment before the yellow crystal along the east wall slowly began to glow.


	34. Arrivals

_Chapter Thirty-four - Arrivals_

"No, no, put your back into it." North Kai said as Yamcha's swing at hitting Gregory missed widely. The Kai had been right, Yamcha had caught Bubbles not more than two hours after Yemma had contacted him about Marron and Trunks. Neither he nor Krillin were yet close to hitting Gregory, though. The Kai figured it'd be another two or three weeks before the two of them finished with the bug. Tien, on the other hand, had very nearly hit him on his last attempt. He knew it wouldn't be much longer, now, before he did. A few hours, perhaps.

Turning from the training warriors again the Kai stretched out his senses to the mortal world once more. He knew that Pan and 17 were due to arrive on Zendavou sometime that day, and wanted to see what the four former Masters would do next. He had no doubts that 18 and Bra would both still want revenge for what happened ten days ago. He had to admit that he was a little concerned that Pan and 17 wouldn't be able to control the two of them, stop them from doing something so foolish as charging right in at Saiya.

He had always figured that 17 and 18 might eventually defect, and that Pan certainly would if the Empire ever did anything to 17. The four were not nearly as cold as their families, Gero, or the Changelings. Before the Supreme Kai had come to him about his plan he'd always felt that the four of them would be the best chance of stopping the Masters. Now he was hoping they'd help make things easier for his students when the time came. But if they got themselves killed now, before the five with him were finished with their training, they'd be of no help to anyone.

Finally he got a lock on Zendavou and found that there were now two saucer ships in the clearing. _"They've already landed. Let's see where they're at..."_ He moved his gaze to the grove where Marron's grave was but found it empty. A very rare occurrence since the grave was first dug, made even rarer after Bra had arrived. He shifted his gaze along the cliff a little and then stopped as he found them. "...the right to fight the other, without interference, to the death." Bra was saying. The Kai furrowed his brow and focused more closely on the conversation.

"Nothing says they wont interfere if they think they have to." said Pan.

"Father would never let them. If they tried he'd blast them himself, if he's still got the strength for it."

"So it's settled." said 18. "We leave for Saiya in an hour."

The Kai sighed. _"Unfortunate."_ he thought. _"Well, with luck they'll manage to escape without being killed. I wont hold my breath that they'll succeed though. Vegeta's already on the lookout for them, they wont get him by surp- Grand Kai?"_ the Kai asked, sensing a mental nudge. _"What... wait, is it done?"_

_"It is. You can come when you're ready."_

The Kai smiled and turned to face his students. Yamcha was still trying to hit Gregory. "Break time!" he called as the Human missed again. "All of you, take a rest. I'll be back in a moment." And with that he vanished.

"Back in a moment?" Mitsuki asked. "Where's he going?"

"You... you don't think he's gone to..." Krillin started, but then the Kai appeared again, with a young blonde woman holding onto his shoulder, halo floating over her head.

Marron looked around her in wonder. Death hadn't exactly been what she'd expected. She'd been terrified, the entire time she was in line, that her mother would appear behind her. But instead it had been Trunks who'd shown up, just as she'd stepped up before that large red man. And then she'd gotten a real shock when he'd asked her to stand aside, that special arrangements were being made for her. She couldn't figure out why, what was so special about her, and had remained confused until after the Grand Kai had transported her back to his world. There she'd been told what was going on.

The North Kai had arranged for her to come to his world where the Earth Resistance members were currently training, including her father. Though that had to wait until after he'd protected her from the gravity of the planet. But now the ritual was over and she was on the North Kai's small planet and looking around her, both at the world and the people standing only a few feet away. She recognized four of them from the files she'd gone over on Saiya. Enzeru, Tien, Yamcha and... her father.

"She really looks like her mother." Tien said.

"Hi." Marron said simply, smiling a little. She really wasn't sure what to say so she said the first thing that came to mind, seeing that the five of them had no halos. "I guess Bulma was right..."

"Huh?" Enzeru asked.

"Oh, a while back she and I were talking and she told me you'd survived." she explained. "Told me not to tell anyone but... but 18. But I... never got the chance." She closed her eyes and sighed. "I tried to but... I didn't have enough strength left anymore to get the words out."

"Marron, how much do you know about what's happened since your death?" North Kai asked.

"I know Trunks died." she said. "I saw him, but that's all."

North Kai nodded. "Your mother recorded everything she saw on Gorneo." he said. "From shortly after she arrived until she killed Trunks. She then sent that video out to her brother. Pan saw it as well and she sent it on to Bra." Marron closed her eyes at the mention of Bra's name and the Kai patted her arm as he continued. "They've all defected, now."

"Wh-what?" Marron asked, shocked, opening her eyes again.

The Kai nodded. "17 didn't want his sister to go it alone, Pan refused to let him go by himself, and Bra... well, she's as upset as your mother. She actually punched her father before she left." Marron's eyes widened at that. The Kai just sighed. "And I just saw, right before coming to get you... they're going to Saiya. 18's going to challenge Vegeta."

"That's suicide!" Krillin cried. "What's she thinking!"

"She's not." said the Kai. "She just wants revenge. I'm hoping that the others will be able to get them out of there when this fails. They wont arrive at Saiya for a while though, at least nine days. I'll watch for them and, when they do arrive, I'll let you watch if you want." He then turned back to Marron. "Now, before I let you get accquainted with everyone, there's something I think you should see."

"What?"

"Come, place your hand on my back, close your eyes, and I'll show you."

Marron nodded and then did as asked. A moment later she smiled and started crying as she gazed at the head stone to her grave.

XXX

Tao had quickly become grateful for whatever twist of fate had brought him his latest passengers. The day after he'd picked them up proper introductions had been made. The Sai-jin in the group was none too pleased to be traveling with him, though he also got the impression she wasn't pleased to be with the others either. The rest of the people from the Talon hadn't cared that he was Resistance, however, and he'd learned a great deal from them. Learned about Brolly, the conspiracy, heard the scouter recording that Eve had found, all of it.

Though his ship really was too small for them all. They had managed to convert the old training room into something of a mass sleeping area. Nail remained on the bridge at all times since he required no sleep and Tao had his own small room while Xeno, Everfrost, and Rain each had set up a cot in the training area, Eve simply slept in her pool of ice water, and Storm and Zukina (much to the Sai-jin's obvious distaste) shared a sleeping bag on the floor.

Needless to say the sixteen day trip from the location of the Talon to Xentron had been a trying experience. But, at last, they were there. Tao had just landed his ship at the ship port along the outskirts of the largest city on the planet, Xentron City. It had already been decided that Nail would attract far too much attention wondering around the planet. Storm, Rain, and Zukina, who had nothing but battle armors to wear, couldn't even step outside the ship without running the very real danger of being attacked and killed. So Tao, Xeno, and Everfrost were going to head out and get supplies. Tao was going to hunt for a new, larger, ship since his new companions would be staying with him. Meanwhile Xeno and Everfrost were going to find clothes for three of the women and some coolant suits for Eve.

Xentron was mostly desert. The average temperature in Xentron City during the winter was 92 during the day, in the shade. The current temperature was 117, considerably more than the Nezerof's body could even hope to contend with. They didn't know how long they'd be on the planet, and without a coolant suit Eve wouldn't be able to leave the ship. And the suit would make things easier on all of them during their travels since there was a limited supply of water and her remaining submerged all the time was impractical.

Tao had wanted to stay off the network while in space, his ship didn't have the same clearance as the Talon so any connection would have been logged and traced, so Eve had had to postpone her research. So, while the three of them shopped Eve was going to start her hacking again.

"Alright, I'll see if Ferri's still got a shop here." Tao said. "With luck she will and we'll be able to get something good at a reasonable price. Otherwise we could be a while hunting down a new ship. Do you have everything you need?"

"Yep." Xeno said, patting his pocket. "We should have enough money and capsules for everything."

Tao nodded. "Be sure not to draw attention to how much money you do have. Don't forget, there's no real government or law here. The locals do police themselves but that doesn't stop everyone. And some of the outlaws here provide services to the planet and so are very nearly given free reign as payment."

"Right." Xeno said, nodding.

"Alright, let's get to it."

XXX

"So you grew up on Indipity?" Krillin asked. He and Marron were stretched out on a pair of the North Kai's lawn chairs, sipping cherry milkshakes and watching Yamcha swinging at Gregory again. Well, Krillin was watching. Marron couldn't see the bug or the mallet move.

The blonde nodded. "Yeah. For fifteen years I didn't have any idea I hadn't been born there. I'm not sure how I got from Earth to Indipity, though. 18 said she just left me on an orphanage step..."

"Some of the orphanages smuggled their kids out, off the Earth." Krillin said. "Risky business, but worth it."

Marron nodded. "If not for them I wouldn't have had what I did. I grew up in a pretty nice house in a pretty nice area. Indipity's always been nice, though. They just handed over planetary control to the Empire without a fight. There were complaints, of course, but Indipity was a stable world and got the benefits for it. Not all was roses but I was lucky to be away from the worst parts of the planet."

"So how'd you find out you were adopted?"

"My adoptive parents died in a ship malfunction. They left me a video in their will that explained it. They also left me the house and a good bit of money, enough I was able to finish school and get myself enrolled at Teknu University. I'd just finished up my six years when18 sent 16 to come get me." Marron bit her lip for a moment and then looked over at Krillin. "She still loves you, you know." she said. "She never said it, but I could tell."

"That was never the problem." he said with a sigh as Yamcha gave up again and Tien picked up the mallet for another go.

"She'll make it." Marron said. "Bra will make sure she does, I know she will. And eventually you'll go back and now you'll be able to go to her."

"So, what about you and Bra? That's not something I'd have ever guessed."

Marron could tell a blatant dodge when she heard one and she went along with it. "Me either, any of it. I spent so long with my head in my books, and locked in my dorm room on campus, that I never even had a crush on anyone in my entire life. Not until I got to the palace and met Bra. I wasn't sure at first about it but by the time I left for Gorneo..." she sighed. "I was so looking forward to our three months together, not having to hide anymore. I... I can't help but wonder if I'd still be alive if we'd told Master Vegeta about us..."

Krillin opened his mouth to say something but stopped as a loud crack sounded over the small planet. Tien had finally hit Gregory. "Wow, look at him go!" Krillin cried as he watched the yellow streak that was the small bug zip off into the distance.

"Excellent work, Tien!" North Kai called from where he sat on his own lawn chair. The short Kai hopped off his chair and walked over to where the other four stood. "Well then, now that three of you have passed the pre-training it's time to begin the actual training. And for that we've got to call in someone else who's volunteered their services." The Kai closed his eyes then. _"It's time."_ was all he said through the telepathic link. He opened his eyes again just as he felt his former student materialize behind him.

Tien's eyes widened as he saw who it was. "Ch-Chaotzu!"

"Hi, Tien."

XXX

"You've _got_ to be kidding me." Everfrost said, gazing at the 'shopping' list the three women had put together (Storm had listed items for Zukina).

"What is it?" Xeno asked, glancing at the screen of his small computer. "...She doesn't actually expect us to get those, does she?"

"I'm more wondering if she expects Zukina to actually wear them." said the Human.

"I doubt it. She probably expects to have to do it herself. Not that it matters, I'm not buying them. If Storm wants them that badly she can go buy them herself, later."

The two came to a stop outside a clothing store as Everfrost did one final look at their list. "We should be able to get everything, even Eve's coolant suits, here since I'm not buying that stuff for Storm either."

While the two of them walked into the store to buy the clothes Tao walked into Ferri's Ships in another part of the city. "It's been a while, Ferri." he said, approaching the counter.

The woman behind it looked up and smiled. She was only three foot tall, had long green hair down to the floor, bright pink skin, thin bug like wings, yellow eyes, and no clothes. A fairly common occurrence on Xentron as a means of coping with the world's opressive heat. She looked no older than eighteen but Tao knew she was vrey much older than that. Older, even, than any of the Masters. "I'll be damned, Tao!" she cried happily, jumping over the counter and rushing over to him. "Where the hell have you been?" she asked, flapping her wings to fly up to eye level with him and punching him lightly in the arm.

"Here and there." he replied. "Business still going good, then?"

"Better then ever." Ferri said, grinning. "It helps now that I've got a more, shall we say, _consistent_ client base. If I had to rely on just you I'd have gone broke years ago. So, what brings you to Xentron? Need some more work on that ship of yours?"

"No, not this time." said Tao. "I've picked up quite a few... traveling companions recently. My ship is not large enough for all of us. I figure it's time to upgrade."

Ferri smiled. "Something bigger and faster, eh? Well, I'll be happy to help with that. There is a problem, though. I've only got fifteen ships currently in stock and all of them, I'm afraid, have already been purchased. Massive order came in just three days ago from one of those _consistent_ clients I mentioned. They'll be here to collect them in a few days. After that..." Ferri shrugged. "I can build you anything you like, so long as you've got the money for it, of course."

Tao nodded. "That's fine. I'm in no rush at the moment, I still have to figure out where to go next. And, unfortunately, it wont be as easy to find this time."

Ferri raised an eyebrow at that. "Harder to find than Ancient temples most of the universe doesn't even know about?" she asked. "What could be harder to find than that?"

"Slug." replied Tao. "He's apparently claimed the remaining items I'm after and I still have no idea where he is. I've considered the possibility that he's already found Homeworld and is hiding out there but... new information has come to light about another possibility. It's one of the main reasons I've come to see you, specifically." Tao glanced over his shoulder at the door. "Perhaps we should keep this private, though?"

Ferri blinked a few times. "Private?" she asked, tiliting her head. "We're on Xentron, what's there to talk about that can't be talked about in the open?"

Tao clasped his hands behind his back. "Imperial matters." he said simply.

Ferri frowned at him for a moment but then flew over to the door, locked it, and then flipped over the sign from Open to Closed. That done she flew back over to her counter and sat down on it, her legs dangling over the edge. "Alright. Let's hear it." she said. "No promises, though. You know the deal."

Tao nodded. "I've recently discovered a connection between Turles and Cooler." the Human said. "It's an old one, as far as I know. But it poses the question of if there's a connection between Slug and Cooler as well. Because then Slug could hide on any number of world's controlled by Cooler."

Ferri pursed her lips. "I see." she said. "And you were wanting to ask me if I know of any such connection?"

"Yes. Anything at all related that you heard or saw." said Tao.

Ferri frowned again. "How'd you find this connection?" she asked.

Tao's face remained blank as he considered the question, or rather, the fact she'd asked it. She'd never asked him where any of his information had come from before and he found it a bit odd that she did now. "Restricted files." he replied at last. "A scouter recording."

Ferri pursed her lips and then made a popping sound as she rocked back and stared up at the ceiling. "You sure like to find messes, don't you?" she asked. "Tinto's about as big as they come." She sighed and rocked forward again, putting her arms down on the counter and leaning on them.

"So, you've heard about what happend there, then?" he asked. He'd figured she likely had, she'd heard about most things that happened in the Empire when she'd still been a part of it.

"Nah." she said, waving a hand. "I was there. Real fine mess, that was. I don't know everything that happened there but I know enough. Main reason I been so helpful to you since you went and told me you were chasing Slug and Turles."

"So Slug was involved as well?"

Ferri nodded. "Sure, he was the one that blew the planet up after everyone else had gone, and Cooler had gotten what he needed." she said as she started kicking her feet back and forth.

"What he needed?"

"Ancient documents. And I don't mean old, I mean Ancient." Ferri popped up off of her counter and flew up to a shelf on the right hand wall where she began rummaging through the dozens of books stored there. "The Ancients had a small outpost there where they stored some prophecies and other things. Including detailed information on the Potara creation process, beyond what I told you the first time we met, and a few other bits and pieces of their world." She pulled a book off the shelf that was nearly half a foot thick and flew back to the counter, dropping it with a thud.

"See, Cooler found an Ancient building the year after his family met the Sai-jins. Somewhere on Zendavou, I don't know where exactly, I wasn't with him then." She frowned. "During that excursion they were still considering giving me to that Flagon oaf as a gift, in exchange for that new engine coil technology. So I was stuck in Cold's palace while they tried to work out the details. Luckily for me he went and ticked off someone and got himself killed before that. Anyway, I heard all about it when Cooler came back. He wasn't sure what it was he found, of course, Ancient text isn't something most people can read.

"But that's where I came in. I can read anything, after all, so he gave it to me to translate. He knew it was something good right from the start, all the defenses and everything that were guarding it." Ferri flipped open the book to somewhere near the middle. "What he found was a small storage area for Ancient technology. The plans for them, anyway. Nothing too impressive or anything, but some nifty toys. Robots, computers, ship systems, teleportation units, ki control units, and so on." She pointed to different bits on one of the pages with each item she mentioned.

"Course, most of it was beyond our technological level at the time. I'm sure a lot of it still is, even now. He had some secret factories made to work on the stuff, though. I guess he figured, what the hell, why not? Worst that could happen is it doesn't work. Before I left they'd managed a few of the simplier items. Anyway, the thing is, there was also data in there about Homeworld itself." Ferri tapped the second page she'd opened to and Tao glanced at it. He recognized the writing, it was Ancient.

"Some of the stuff was missing, torn pages, faded ink, that sort of thing. But from what I did have I determined that the Ancients sealed some great and terrible power deep inside their world. Something that it had taken them all to imprison, and which had nearly wiped out all life in the universe. Cooler, of course, loved that. Some great power he could go out and find? He was all for it. Only, we had no idea where to look. The documents mentioned another location on another planet that had more information, though, so Cooler went searching for it.

"Only, he wasn't as careful as he thought. Somewhere along the way Bardock figured out what Cooler was after. Apparently he even learned more than me cause some of the stuff I heard him say didn't make much sense and still doesn't. Point is, he went chasing after the same thing as Cooler and, eventually, they found out that Tinto was the planet in question. Thus we get to the events on Tinto and Bardock's fight with Cooler." Ferri sat down on the book, legs crossed, elbows on her knees, and put her head in her hands.

"Bardock beat Cooler to the planet and managed to take some of the stuff there and hide it, somewhere. But Cooler got there before Bardock could hide all of it and he still found out how to find the Ancient's homeworld and unlock that great power he'd learned of before." Ferri shrugged. "Once he had what he needed he left and Slug blew the planet up to cover their tracks."

Tao pursed his lips in thought. "Why are Slug and Turles working with him?" he asked. "And Vegeta, too? He was on Tinto as well."

"Who says they are?" Ferri asked. "From what I picked up they've all got their own motives and reasons, and I'm not entirely convinced any of them are actually loyal to anyone else. It's a real mess, like I said. Everyone's trying to double cross everyone else. But what do you expect? We're talking about Changelings and Sai-jins here. They'd stab their own mothers in the back for a little more power. Honestly, I'm not even sure if Slug, Turles, and Vegeta even know what it is they're looking for. I mean, what it is Cooler's looking for, cause none of them actually know what this great and terrible power is, they just want it."

"Any ideas on where Slug might be hiding, then? If he's got Cooler's support that gives him a number of places to lay low."

"Sorry, I haven't got anything on that." she said. "Tinto was the one and only time I ever saw Slug. Never saw or heard anything that might have been him hiding somewhere, either. Maybe Vegeta's the one giving him safe harbor? I never had enough contact with the Sai-jins to know about what happens on Saiya, but he's definitely tied to Cooler and Turles, which ties him to Slug, too."

Tao frowned. It was possible, Vegeta was certainly involved with Cooler back on Tinto. "Thanks for the info, Ferri."

She nodded. "Any time." she said. "I like you, and I don't want Slug and Cooler finding this power. They're nasty enough without it." She flew up off the book again, closed it, and then flew it back up to the shelf. "So, about that ship you came for." she said, flipping the sign on her door back to Open and unlocking it. "I'll build a nice custom one, whatever you want and need, half price on all parts. How's that sound?"

Tao nodded. "Excellent." he said.

She grinned. "Of course it is, it's one of my ships. Well, come on, let's get started on the plans."

XXX

"I can't believe it cost 350 Credits for what little bit we got." Everfrost muttered as he and Xeno entered the ship port. They'd managed to get everything on the shopping list, though it had taken nearly three hours. "This place doesn't even have Imperial taxes to jack up the prices."

"No, it's just run by a bunch of criminals and outlaws." said Xeno. "I'm surprised they didn't charge us more." The two made their way through the streets of the ship port to where they were currently parked in silence after that. When they reached the ship they found the door already open and Rain standing in the doorway, wrapped in a towel, yelling at two large red skinned men with bull horns and dog faces. "Oh, terrific." Xeno muttered.

"Look, fuck off already." Rain said, hands on her hips. "I've already told you, we want nothing to do with you."

"What you want and what's going to happen are two different things." said the man on the right. "We run these parts, including these ship docks, and what we say goes."

"What's the problem?" Xeno asked as he and Everfrost came up behind the two men. They were both at least eight feet tall and twice as wide as him and Everfrost combined.

The two men turned and frowned at the new arrivals. "Best be on your way, shrimps." the one on the right said. "This aint none of your business."

"Actually, it is." said Everfrost, pushing past the two men and starting up the steps into the ship. Xeno hesitated a moment and then quickly followed after him. The Human stepped inside and saw Storm and Nail both just beyond the doorway, Eve back a little from that. Storm had her scouter on and was frowning. "How strong are they?" he asked quietly.

"Around eighty thousand each." she replied, continuing to frown.

"I could take them both, even two on one, but we're hoping I don't have to show myself." said Nail. "As Tao said before, I'd rather stick out."

Everfrost nodded as he handed the Capsule of their stuff over to Xeno and then went back to the door. "So, what's the problem?" he asked, stopping to stand beside Rain.

The two red skinned men frowned more at him. Apparently they weren't happy that the two new arrivals were with the ship too. While they continued to frown it was Rain who answered him. "These two oafs are claiming we have to pay them to be here, otherwise they'll smash our ship."

"Well, we can't pay you." said Everfrost. "Tao has all of the money."

"Tao?" asked the one on the right, blinking. He turned his gaze from those at the door to the ship itself, apparently looking it over. "You mean the Human?" he asked.

"Yeah." said Everfrost.

The two men turned and started mumbling to each other for a moment, then turned back to the ship again. "Alright. You tell Tao that Ludic and Ridic came by." the one on the left said. "He'll know where to find us." And with that they turned and lumbered off.

"Geez, if I knew it'd be that easy to get rid of them I'd have done it fifteen minutes ago." Rain muttered, closing the door.

"So, got our stuff?" asked Storm.

Xeno nodded and held up the Capsule. "We didn't get everything you had down for Zukina." he said. "If you want that stuff you can buy it yourself."

"Fine, fine." Storm said, grabbing the Capsule.

XXX

Zukina kept glancing toward the ladder down to the lower level every few seconds, just to be sure no one was coming up. Being caught would be, she knew, unpleasant. But the two oafs outside the ship had given her time alone, something she'd not had since Storm first took her down to the hold aboard the Talon. After Eve had gone down as well she had waited to make sure no one would come up but the argument below was keeping everyone's attention. So now she sat at one of the computer panels waiting for a connection to the ComNet to go through and holding her breath.

She got a link in just as she heard Everfrost's voice below. With him and Xeno back she figured her time was running short and acted quickly, typing out her message and then sending it. She'd just disconnected from the ComNet and moved away from the computer when she heard the sounds of people coming up the ladder from below. She turned away from the ladder as she forced herself to stop smirking, not wanting whoever was coming up to see it.

XXX

It was four hours after Zukina's message went out that it arrived on the terminal in Frieza's throne room. The Changeling had been going through notices and reports merely because he was bored and nearly flicked the message off before he caught what it contained. "Finally!" he cried, pounding a fist into the arm of his chair. Reaching out a hand he hit a series of buttons on his terminal and the screen shifted from the message to an image of the galaxy with several blinking purple dots on it. A few more button pushes and he was zoomed in to a small star cluster and a single blinking dot. Double tapping that dot brought up a connecting notice for a moment and then a round blue face.

"Master Frieza." the man said, nodding slightly. "What do you need?"

"You're closest to Xentron." Frieza said. "Redirect there at once. I just recieved information stating that Tao is on the planet. Locate and eliminate the Human and find out if the Namek is still with him. If he is, then capture him!"

The man nodded again. "It shall be done." he said before the screen went blank again.

As Frieza stared at his reflection he couldn't help but smirk. They were about two weeks away from the planet but this was the first lead he'd had on the Human's location in over a month. The fact he had a location for him at all was putting him in a good mood again after that disasterous meeting ten days before that Bra had interrupted. Had it not been for Vegeta's ultimatum he would have been pleased by the deterioration of the Sai-jins' affairs. Instead, his brother had continued to refuse to budge and in the end the Sai-jin King had held to his word and made a decision for them. Cold's portion of the galaxy and Imperial matters and power had been given to Piccolo. The Namek was currently in transit to Cold's planet to assume control until the Changeling surfaced again.

Thinking about reading that decree on his terminal caused him to scowl but he pushed those thoughts aside after a moment and focused on this more fortunate turn of events. _"With any luck he'll still be there when they arrive."_ he thought, smirking again. _"And then I'll have him at last!"_

XXX

Bra watched the viewscreen as Saiya drew quickly and steadily closer. Their nine day trek from Zendavou to Saiya was now almost over. They were only a few minutes away now and as the planet drew closer Bra became more and more determined. Determined to see her father pay for Marron's death and determined to make sure 18 survived. She hadn't been able to protect Marron but she promised herself, and Marron too, that she'd protect 18, no matter what. The Cyborg was now her only link to Marron and she knew she'd die before she let anything happen to her. It was her own way of appologizing to Marron.

Pan, on the other hand, was getting more and more nervous as the world drew closer. She was terrified that things would go badly. That something would happen to Bra or 17. She'd tried to convince them both to stay back with the ship but neither would even consider it. Both insisted on being there, on seeing the outcome of the fight. She knew that if her father or grandfather stepped in then they wouldn't stand a chance. She didn't know how much power 18 had while transformed but she doubted it was anywhere near enough to deal with either of them. She still wasn't convinced it would be enough to deal with Vegeta. Strong enough not to be budged by her didn't mean strong enough to fight evenly with the Sai-jin king. She knew there was something else gnawing at her, too, but chose to ignore it.

17 was concerned as well. Concerned for 18 and for Pan more than himself. Even though he was weaker than her he was determined to protect Pan from any threats. Even if it was Kakkarotto that was the threat. He was also worried about what confronting the three Sai-jins would do for Pan's mental state. The girl was getting edgier and jumpier every day. He knew it was more than just nerves about what was soon to come, more than just concern for those with her. It was concern about family, too. About the answers they'd give her for why they allowed what happend on Gorneo to happen. He knew she wanted answers, she wanted a reason to forgive them, and he was worried about what would happen to her when she didn't get it.

Faith had even convinced the others to take her with them. She'd be of no help in the fight, she knew that, but she didn't want to be the only one left with the ship. After everything she'd been through with 18 back on Leberion she wasn't willing to abandon her now, even if the most she could do was just be there as moral support. She was terrified, of course, but she also knew it didn't matter if she went with them or stayed with the ship, if 18 lost she'd probably end up dead herself, too. It wasn't a welcome thought, but she'd been unwilling to stay on Zendavou for the same reason she was unwilling to stay with the ship.

18 was the only one on the ship who wasn't nervous. She knew that, win or lose, she'd get an outcome she wanted. If she won then she'd have the revenge, the justice, that she'd promised her daughter. If she lost... Well, she wasn't sure if she'd end up in the same place as Marron or not but she had her fingers crossed. Her only concern if she lost was everyone else getting away safely. Before they'd left Zendavou she'd tried with each to have them stay behind but they had all adamantly refused. She was grateful that they were willing to come with her, though. She'd found that the fact that Bra didn't hate her, was in fact on her side, was the most empowering of all. It made her anger and hate and need for revenge feel more justified.

"Atmospheric entry in two minutes." Pan called from where she sat. "We'll be on the surface in eighteen minutes."


	35. Super 18

_Chapter Thirty-five - Super 18_

17 set the ship down near the palace, but off and away, out of sight in the trees. They all knew that Saiya's sensor net had picked them up once they'd come within a million miles of the planet. But it would take time before anyone realized exactly where they'd landed at. By then the fight would be over, win or lose. Now they were all gathered at the exit from the ship, Faith with her arms around 17's neck so the Cyborg could carry her. None of them wore their battle armor. Pan, Bra, and 17 were in civilian clothes while 18 had borrowed one of Bra's blue body suits.

"Last chance for anyone to stay behind." 18 said, looking toward the palace not more than two hundred yards to her right, just visible beyond the trees. When no one said anything, or moved back into the ship, she nodded. "Alright, let's go." she said, lifting into the air. The others followed after her and they flew out beyond the trees toward the front of the palace. They'd decided before arriving that the fastest and easiest way to get the attention of those inside was to make as much of a commotion as possible. So 18 pointed an arm at the palace, near where the ship bays were located, and fired off a string of energy blasts.

As 17 landed so that Faith could climb off his back the ten shots hit the stone wall of the building and exploded, blasting apart the supports and tearing open a hole into the ship bays. They heard the sound of the alarms going off a moment later.

"They're coming." Pan said, gazing toward the palace. "Vegeta, father, grandfather and..."

"Buu." Bra said. "That really big power is Buu."

Pan nodded as, a moment later, the four in question appeared before them, the three Sai-jins in their battle armor. And then Pan saw that there was a fifth one with them, one that she hadn't been able to sense. Her mother. She felt her stomach flip. She'd expected her father and grandfather to come, but seeing her mother too... She closed her eyes for a moment and fought to get herself back under control. While she was doing that she heard a voice she didn't know.

"Why Bra leave without telling Buu?" Buu asked.

Bra turned her gaze from her father to the large pink creature, her scowl fading away as she did. "Sorry, Buu." she said. "I didn't want to be around him..." she gave a head jerk in her father's direction. "Any longer than I had to." Buu blinked a few times and seemed to be considering her answer. Before he could say anything else, though, Kakkarotto spoke up.

"Pan, why don't you come back over here." he said. "This isn't the way to handle..."

Pan's eyes snapped open and she glared up at her grandfather, the unexpected scowl causing him to trail off mid sentence. "I don't think you have any room to be lecturing me on the 'right way' to handle something." she said.

The Sai-jin sighed and rubbed his forehead. "We did what we had to..."

"Had to?" demanded Bra. "Don't give me that bull. There was no 'had to' about it."

"You have to understand." Gohan said, cutting off Vegeta before he could reply to his daughter. "We..."

"I understand just fine." Bra said, turning her gaze toward Gohan, her scowl returning.

"Let him finish." Pan said. "I want to hear this." Bra continued to scowl but nodded.

Gohan sighed and shook his head. "We were already concerned about Marron before the power spike incident." he said. "Her father, the destruction of Earth... we were keeping an eye on her because we already felt her background could make her a problem. We don't even know if that was the maximum amount of power she could draw out. If she ever got control of her power..." He sighed again. "We had to think about the future, had to take steps to protect the Empire."

Bra snorted and shook her head. "Fine job you did there." she said.

Pan glanced over at her friend then back up at her father. "What about Gorneo?" she asked. "What about all of the people there who had nothing to do with Marron?"

"We close down facilities all the time." Vegeta said.

"Close... down...?" Pan repeated. "Close down! You had them all killed!"

"That's what he means." 18 said. Pan glanced over at the Cyborg, but the blonde was still staring at Vegeta. "You never had access to Gero's computers, to the black ops records. At least a quarter of the facilities that he's had closed are in those files because he's sent a team in to clear them. Outside groups can't steal equipment if it's molten slag and they can't entice the former workers to defect and spill Imperial secrets if they're dead."

Pan blinked and then turned to look back at 17. "Did you..."

"Know about it?" he asked. "Yeah."

"Did... did you ever...?"

"No. I've never 'closed' any of their facilities." he said. "It's always been a strike team or..."

"Or one of them." said 18, scowling at the three Sai-jins in front of her. "All under the banner of protecting the Empire." Pan turned her focus back to her father and grandfather, waiting for them to say that 18 was wrong, but neither of them did. Instead, Gohan addressed 18.

"What about you?" he asked. "How many have you killed?"

"Too many." she replied. "But never anyone who wasn't a threat to the Emp..., no, to Marron. I did everything I could to save lives, to put a stop to things as peacefully as possible. I only did what was needed to stop an actual threat to Marron. But never one that was 'maybe' a threat 'sometime' in the 'possible' future."

Vegeta snorted. "We can talk until we're all blue in the face, it's not going to change anything. What's done is done. Bra, it's over. Get over here."

"Hell no." she said, scowling more. "What's the problem? You keep telling me to act more Sai-jin, and now that I am you don't like it?" She shook her head. "Marron was my Mate. You can't honestly think I'd just roll over, let you get away with killing her? I intend to see justice done."

Vegeta scowled but it was Videl who spoke up next. "Pan, come over here..." she called.

Pan looked over at her mother for a moment, then back to her father and grandfather and shook her head before floating down to join 17 and Faith. "No." she said. "I like it better over here."

"I say we settle this." said 18. "Just you and me, Vegeta."

The Sai-jin King smirked. "One on one?" he asked. "You may have been able to catch Trunks with one of your energy discs but you wont be so lucky with me. Our difference in power is too great for them to work on me." There was a bright flash of gold as he transformed. "The rest of you, stay back. This is between the two of us." Gohan and Kakkarotto nodded and floated back and away. Videl hesitated a moment and then joined them, leading Buu along with her. Once they were gone Vegeta turned his green eyes back to 18. "Well, I'll give you the first shot." he said as Bra floated down to join the others.

"Your arrogance will be your death." 18 said as she began to glow blue. The Sai-jin King's eyes widened as Gohan and Kakkarotto glanced at each other. When they looked back 18's transformation was over. "Now, let's finish this!" she cried, surging in at Vegeta. Her fist slammed into his face with a resounding crack and knocked him flying away. In a burst of blue the Cyborg shot after him.

"What the..." Gohan said in shock as 18 finished transforming. He'd felt her energy suddenly spike up, something that, in and of itself, was strange, just as she finished the transformation. 18 didn't use ki so there shouldn't have been anything to sense. But sense it he could. Her changed appearance was odd as well, though he figured it was something else the doctor had included in her design somewhere along the way.

"That's the strangest aura I've ever seen." Kakkarotto said as the Cyborg lunged at Vegeta. Gohan had to agree. Every aura he'd seen before looked something like fire, with peaks and valleys, something that flowed up around the person like a second skin. This was more like a cocoon of light, a solid wrapping of blue with occasional bits that lifted off of it like a fine mist.

"You think that's all the power she's got, what we can sense?" Gohan asked as 18's punch connected with the Sai-jin King's face and sent him sailing.

"How should I know?" his father replied. "I'm not even sure why we can sense it."

Vegeta's eyes snapped open as he saw 18 appear above him, right arm pulled back, blue and purple energy snapping around her fist. He quickly brought an arm up as her first came down and deflected her aim just enough to miss his head. That quick impact, however, startled him further. When she'd first punched him he thought, for sure, she was about equal to his power. Now, however, she felt stronger than that. Pushing it aside for the moment he lashed out with a punch for her head but she dodged around it with ease and then slammed her knee into his stomach driving him down into the ground.

"What... what's she doing?" Bra asked, blinking. She could still feel her father's energy just fine, and it was still high, indicating that not only was he not dead, he was still concious. "If she keeps this up he'll transform again before..." she trailed off then as Vegeta did just that in a bright burst of gold.

18 scowled as she flew back, deflecting an energy blast away from her as she did. _"I thought I had a better grip on this form than this."_ she thought. _"I can't seem to keep my strength up at full. I'd meant to kill him with those two hits."_ She just managed to dodge around a punch and then slam her knee into Vegeta's chest before driving her elbow down into the back of his neck. _"No matter, I can still beat him. It wont be easy, I can tell that just from how fast he is, but I still have a chance."_ Then she smirked._ "If I can get a good enough opening to shove that Energy Inhibitor onto his neck I'll have an even better one."_

She blocked a kick aimed for her chest and countered with her own for Vegeta's head. The royal deflected it and then slammed an elbow into 18's jaw. As she reeled back from the blow he smashed a fist into her stomach before moving above and behind her and kicking her in the small of her back driving her into the ground. He then fired off a blast of gold energy which impacted and exploded savagely, causing even 17 and the others, standing a hundred yards away, to fall over.

"Destructo Disc!"

Suddenly the Sai-jin's eyes widened as an energy disc came surging up out of the dust cloud. He slipped to the left around it only to see another charging for him followed by a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and a seventh. He dodged around each of them, though barely avoided losing a few fingers on the last one. Just as he got around it and went to look for 18 the Cyborg smashed her foot into the back of his head. As he was knocked forward she reached out and grabbed his foot and then surged down at the ground at full speed coming to a stop only ten feet up and pitching him into the ground head first.

18 then thrust her arms down and fired off a volley of blue energy blasts, each one impacting with a thundering explosion and throwing more dust and debris into the air. After nearly a hundred shots she stopped and dove into the dust cloud. A few seconds later there was a loud crack and the dust cloud was blown apart. The Cyborg had her right arm up blocking a left kick from Vegeta while he had his right leg up blocking her left punch. The two floated there for a moment and then transformed into a blur of color, bright flashes, and thundering cracks as they begin a fierce exchange of close range attacks.

"Vegeta's got the advantage in power." Kakkarotto said, crossing his arms as he watched the fight, best as he could. Without being transformed he had to rely on his ki sensing to follow them and it was proving difficult with 18. Her energy wasn't entirely stable, neither in level nor in pattern. If he tried to focus on it too much it disoriented him and pulled on his mind and stomach. He thought it felt a bit like what happened when you spun around in circles really fast.

"18's got infinite energy, she's not going to be tiring out anytime soon." said Gohan. "At least part of her power should have unlimited reserves, anyway."

"Yeah, maybe." agreed Kakkarotto. "But I figure we can sense about half of her power which means only half of it is coming from her generator. Even if it is an unlimited supply of energy it's only an unlimited supply of _half _of her energy."

Another thundering crack sounded as both fighters landed right hooks to each other's jaw and were knocked, spinning, away from each other. Vegeta recovered first and launched off an energy disc of his own but 18 saw it and slipped to the side, the disc only cutting a small gash in her body suit and along her right arm, drawing a little blood. She ignored it, her nano-bots would have the cut sealed over and fully healed in less than twenty seconds. Raising her hands in front of her face she spread her fingers. "Solar Flare!"

As the blindingly bright light bathed the area 18 charged in at Vegeta again and pounded a fist into his stomach doubling him over and cracking the red padding of his armor. Then she smashed her elbow into the side of his head, grabbed his arm as he was knocked away, yanked him back toward her, and thrust an open palm into his face with a resounding crack. As the glare faded everyone saw the blood running from Vegeta's nose as the Sai-jin King scowled at the woman in front of him.

"What's the matter?" 18 asked. "Not going as easily as you expected?" She slipped into a fighting stance then. Turned so that her left side was facing him, left leg forward, right leg back, left arm forward and low, right arm back and high.

"Well, this at least explains how you beat Trunks." Vegeta said, working a cramp out of his shoulder from having his arm yanked before. "But it's not enough to beat me."

18 smirked. "We'll see about that." she said. The odd blue aura around her suddenly grew brighter as she surged in at Vegeta again. The Sai-jin was ready for her and lashed out with a right kick toward her head as she neared but her left arm came up and blocked it, then her right snapped out for his stomach. Vegeta pulled back and the woman's punch barely grazed his damaged armor. As he pulled away he thrust a leg out and up, kicking her in the side. He then spun around behind her and slammed his other foot into her back, between her shoulder blades.

As she was knocked away from him he slammed his arms together, palms facing forward, golden energy sparking to life in front of them. "Final Flash!" he cried, the golden energy surging toward her just as she started turning to face him again.

18's eyes widened as she saw the attack nearing and quickly cupped her hands at her side, blue energy gathering between her hands. "Kamehameha!" she cried, thrusting her arms forward and firing off her counter. The two beams hit only a hundred feet from the Cyborg and the shockwave of their impact drove her back nearly fifty more. She ignored the sudden surge of pain that flared inside of her and focused on pushing more power into her attack. The warring attacks were only twenty feet away from her when they finally stalemated and then started reversing.

_"Vegeta held back on his attack, probably trying not to burn himself out too fast, but it's going to make things easier for me."_ she thought. _"If he's too worried about tiring out to use his full power in his attacks that increases my chances at surviving long enough to win."_

With a growl of anger and frustration Vegeta ended his attack and dodged around the Kamehameha as it sped toward, and then past, him. He hadn't been willing to commit more power to that exchange. He hadn't been sure if he'd have been able to over power her before his energy began to drop. The last thing he wanted in this battle was to start wearing down. He slid to the left as 18 surged in at him and swung a punch for his head. His arms came up a second later and blocked the following kick for, also aimed for his head. As she pulled back to launch another attack he thrust his arms forward and fired a blast of energy into her chest where it exploded and drove her back.

He shot off after her in a burst of gold and launched a kick for her head but she managed to slip it and then grabbed his ankle. With a twist and a cry she flipped over in the air and pitched him at the ground a hundred feet below. The Sai-jin veered off at the last second and then surged back up at her. As he charged she scowled and the raised her arms above her head, golden energy gathering quickly. "Finish Buster!" she yelled, pitching the attack down. Vegeta scowled and pulled to a stop, thrusting his arms up to catch and deflect the charging ball of ki. Then he heard her call out again. "Burning Attack!"

The second ball of ki shot off at incredible speed and slammed into the golden energy Vegeta had just caught. There was a blinding and thunderous explosion as the twin attacks detonated. The blast tore up the ground beneath them forming a forty foot deep crater. The shockwave nearly knocked Pan and Bra over and slammed into the palace a moment later shattering nearly three hundred windows. Bra tried to see through the glare, hear through the roar of wind, to know what was going on. She'd felt her father's power take a drop after that but she could tell 18's had as well. Apparently the energy they could sense wasn't unlimited and that had the Hybrid worried.

A moment later there was a loud crack and then a crash. At last the glare cleared and Bra saw a towering dust cloud, above which her father floated. "Who do you think you are, using my son's attacks against me!" he yelled down, breathing heavily. His armor was even more cracked now, black lines tracing along the right side of the golden breast plate, and the right sleeve of his body suit, from the shoulder to just above the glove, was gone, blood flowing from numerous cuts.

"Who do you think you are, ordering my daughter's death!" 18 countered from within the dust cloud. "But alright, you don't like me using his attacks let's see how you do with some of mine! Death Blossom!"

Vegeta's eyes narrowed and then widened as a forty foot wide ball of pink and gold ki surged out of the dust and charged toward him. He dodged to the right but the energy suddenly curved and shot straight up while still ten feet from hitting him. He followed it with his eyes as it flew up another two hundred feet and then suddenly shrank to no more than a foot across before exploding into more than a hundred orbs of energy, all of which shot off in random directions toward the ground. Vegeta slipped around five that were coming his way before he saw 18 charging him from below.

As he turned to face the Cyborg she smirked, thrust her arms out, closed her hands into fists, and then slammed her fists together. The Sai-jin quickly pulled up into a tight ball as all of the energy blasts suddenly stopped and redirected back at him. They surged in and collided with him in thunderous succession, the ground shook under the shockwaves as the battle was hidden by a new billowing dust cloud, growing ever larger as more attacks impacted and detonated.

As the last one hit and exploded 18 reached the location and threw a punch into the dust cloud. With a resounding crack Vegeta came surging out the other side trailing smoke, the left strap of his armor now gone and the legs of his body suit, from knee down, missing, along with his boots. More blood flowed along his arms and legs, and was soaking into what remained of his body suit.

18 charged into and then out of the dust cloud, chasing after him, and pulled back her right fist gathering purple and red energy around it. The energy quickly changed into a ball of spinning ki, swirling blades of energy spinning around it in a dozen different directions. "Shredder Mine!" she cried, thrusting her arm forward and firing off the attack just as Vegeta righted himself again. He dodged to the side and the blast sped past him and hit a tree, bored into it nearly a foot, and then exploded ripping the three in half.

The Sai-jin scowled at the destroyed tree then turned to glare at 18. "This is getting tiresome." he said. "It's time to put an end to this." He thrust an arm out toward her, golden energy gathering quickly in front of his hand. 18 braced herself and slipped her left hand behind her back, cupping it, and charging another ball of spinning ki. "Big Bang Attack!" Vegeta suddenly cried.

18 smirked as the ball of golden orange ki surged at her. "Shredder Mine!" she cried, pitching the attack toward Vegeta's. The two balls of energy met about halfway between them and Vegeta's exploded in a blinding flash of yellow and a thunderous roar. 18's, however, punched right through and continued its charge for Vegeta. The Sai-jin dodged around it at the last second and as he turned from watching it speed by his eyes widened and then 18's fist slammed into his face. He recovered in time to block her follow up kick and then smashed his knee into her face and then his fist into her stomach before thrusting an elbow down into the back of her neck and driving her down into the ground again.

18 had managed to get up onto her hands and knees by the time Vegeta reached the ground. His right leg snapped out and he kicked her in the stomach before dropping his heel down onto her back and driving her into the ground again. _"Damn it! I can't get my power back up!"_ she thought, forcing the pain from her mind as best she could. She hurt like hell everywhere, every attack she'd launched since using the Kamehameha seemed to make her entire body burn. And the longer the fight went the more trouble she was having keeping her power up and stable.

Suddenly Vegeta's foot came surging in and smashed into the side of her head knocking her flying a good fifty yards before coming back down, bouncing and rolling another ten before stopping. Her vision blurred as she pushed herself up onto her knees and squinted, trying to see where the Sai-jin was. _"Shit!"_ she thought, seeing him charging at her again. She quickly brought an arm up and pointed a finger at him, best as she could with her currently seeing double. "Dodon Ray!"

The energy beam slipped past Vegeta's head missing him by less than an inch, but it was close enough he swerved off the side. By the time he started in at her again the Cyborg's vision had cleared. _"I need to distract him a bit, give me some time."_ she thought, bringing her hands up before her face again. "Solar Flare!" As the bright glare flooded the battle field again she quickly moved her hands in front of her abdomen, fingers bent so they were pointing at each other, and began channeling red energy between them. She could feel the burning flooding through her already and had the feeling this might be her last attack, her last chance to win.

A sudden flash of red light, even through the slowly fading glare, and then the rush of wind made 17 try and see through the glare to his sister. He had an idea what she might be doing and if he was right... As the glare faded from his eyes and he caught sight of 18 again he cursed. She was hunched over, a bright ball of red energy between her hands, more swirling in and making the attack larger as it pulsed and rippled. "Back!" he yelled, grabbing Faith and flying backward. Bra and Pan glanced at him for moment, then out at 18 as her attack suddenly flashed and seemed to grow out to engulf her, before following after him. 17 didn't stop until he was a good five hundred yards away from his sister.

Back in the battle field 18 followed their retreat with her scanners. _"Good, they should be out of range now."_ she thought as they came to a stop. Turning her focus from them and back to Vegeta she scowled. The Sai-jin had decided that he'd rather attack her then wait for what she was preparing to be finished. He was coming in too soon and too fast, she wouldn't be able to get as much of a charge as she'd wanted. _"Hopefully it'll still be enough."_ she thought as Vegeta reached 50 yards. At 40 yards she smirked. At 30 yards she called out. "Nova Bomb!"

All sound was drowned out in the deafening roar that followed. The entire planet shook as the red energy gathered around 18, and between her hands, suddenly and savagely exploded. The crimson energy rushed out more than four hundred yards from 18 in every direction and then surged up into the sky like a massive volcano spewing lava into the heavens.

"No... way!" Pan cried as she quickly transformed to the second level and grabbed both Faith and 17 to stop them from being blown away from the rushing waves of wind and power. Bra shared in the sentiment from where she stood behind Pan, using her as a wind break, and starring in shock at the palace as the quaking sent snaking cracks up through the stone. There was a sudden, loud, cracking and grinding sound just barely audible over the rush of ki, and then the front outer wall of the palace shattered and collapsed.

Gohan and Kakkarotto had both transformed as well in order to out run the rushing energy, as it nearly engulfed them. "If this keeps up the entire planet could start ripping apart!" Gohan cried. His father nodded but, as he did, the energy began to subside. The towering column grew smaller and smaller, the rushing wind faded, and the loud roar died off. As the last of it faded away it revealed 18 down on one knee, the blue glow of her odd aura fading in and out, but no sign of Vegeta. 18 grinned for a moment, then grimaced and flashed blue as she reverted to normal and collapsed to her hands and knees, in almost too much pain to think.

"Damn it!" Bra cried, eyes going to the sky. The others all looked up as well and saw Vegeta floating there, panting, armor completely shattered, body suit little more than a half tunic draped over his left shoulder, right glove gone, and leggings reduced to mid thigh length shorts. Blood ran down his arms, legs, and forehead, but blue energy still crackled about his aura. He'd taken a good beating but he was in much better shape than the Cyborg below him. 18 couldn't get her arms or legs to cooperate through the pain.

"Time... to end... this." he panted, thrusting an arm down at the Cyborg and channeling energy in front of his palm.

"Bra!" Pan cried as the girl flashed gold and surged forward. A second later she shot after her, 17 right behind them. Vegeta scowled as he watched his daughter fly up to 18 and then stop to float in front of and above her, between the woman and his forming attack.

"If you want to kill her," Bra began, scowling up at him as well. "Then you'll have to go through me, first."

"We'll never make it back to the ship." 17 said as he and Pan reached them and he knelt beside his sister.

Bra turned her head slightly so she could see him without losing sight of her father and spotted the damage to the palace. The hole in the wall that 18 had created to announce their arrival. "The palace." she said softly, so that only those with her could hear. "We've got a clear shot into the ship bays. Father's ships are the fastest in the Empire, we'll take one of them. Pan, go get Faith. 17, carry 18." The two hesitated only a moment and then did as told. 18 cried out in pain as 17 draped one of her arms over his shoulder and then flew for the palace.

Bra kept her eyes locked on her father's, watching for any sign that he was going to attack one of the others. As she sensed Pan grab Faith she started floating away from her father but, though he watched her, his arm and attack never moved. Half way to the palace Bra turned and flew off at full speed. Vegeta scowled as he watched her go, the attack he'd formed fading away into nothing.

"We should go after them." Kakkarotto said, floating forward. "Try again to get Pan and Bra to stay."

"No." Videl said, flying past the others and turning to look at them. "If you go you'll just make things worse. Buu and I will go."

Gohan nodded so Videl motioned to Buu and then flew off for the palace. The two reached the ship bays and found Pan and Bra standing just outside the door into one of Vegeta's newest saucer ships.

"Bra leave without saying bye to Buu again?" Buu asked. "Bra mad at Buu?"

Her look softened, she'd expected her father to come, not Videl and Buu. "No Buu, I still like you." she said. "It's my father I don't like."

"Ok, but where Marron?" Buu asked, looking around. "Buu thought she with you."

Bra closed her eyes and fought against the rush of emotions that suddenly hit her. "She... she's gone." she said.

"Gone? Where she go?"

The Hybrid swallowed and shook her head. "She's... dead. Trunks... Trunks killed her."

"Dead?" Buu asked, blinking. "Why Trunks do that? Buu liked Marron."

"Me too." Bra said, smiling even as her eyes misted up again. "It's why I don't like dad anymore. He told Trunks to do it." She raised a hand as she saw Buu was about to ask another question. "It'll take too long to explain." she said. "Buu... can I ask you to do something for me? I... I don't know when I'll be back. I'd feel... better... knowing mom was ok. Can you keep an eye on her? Make sure she's ok and no one hurts her?"

Buu nodded. "Buu like Bra so Buu help!" he cheered.

"Thanks, Buu."

Meanwhile Videl was talking with her daughter. "Pan, I know how you feel but..."

Pan shook her head. "You... you've been working with Gero for years." she said. "Did you know? About how they 'closed' some of their facilities?"

Videl closed her eyes, sighed, and nodded. "Yes. I was usually the one to record it in the computer."

"How could you... how could you know about that and not try and stop it!" she yelled.

"It's not that simple, Pan." Videl said. "You saw what happened with Marron. I didn't... didn't want to do anything to put me, or you, in danger. I don't think your father or grandfather would ever hurt either of us but... Vegeta..." she shook her head. "I'm not proud of it, or a lot of other things I've done, but I did what I thought I had to at the time to keep us safe."

Pan closed her eyes and sighed. "It's ok." she said. "I understand." Opening her eyes again she smiled. "I'm sorry I yelled. It's not you I'm mad at." She glanced behind her as she heard the ship's engines flare to life at last. 17 had gone ahead to start it while she and Bra had stayed behind to head off anyone following. "I'm sorry, but I have to go." she said, turning back to her mother. "I can't stay here, can't be part of this anymore."

"Then let me come with you." Videl said, grabbing Pan's hand as the girl turned to leave. "I've been going crazy these last few weeks, not knowing where you were or if you were ok. Let me come with you."

Pan bit her lip and then smiled and nodded. "Yeah, ok."

"Ready, then?" Bra asked.

"Yeah." said Pan as her mother walked into the ship. "We going back to Zendavou...?"

"No." 17 said, emerging from the ship again. "The location is in the computers of the other ship. They'll know about Zendavou once they look at the flight records. We're going out to the fringes." The two girls walked up into the ship, Bra waving good-bye to Buu as the door closed. "We'll head to Xentron." he said as the door closed with a click.

Buu stopped waving as the ship lifted a few feet off the ground, then its legs came up and the landing hatches closed over. He stood there watching as the ship flew out through the hole in the wall then off into the sky. Once it was out of sight Buu looked around for an exit but couldn't see any except the hole so he went back out and found the three Sai-jins floating there waiting.

"Where's Videl?" Gohan asked.

"She leave with Bra and friends." Buu replied. Gohan just stared at him in shock but Vegeta scowled and turned his gaze up at the sky.

"Do you know where they went?" Kakkarotto asked.

"Ummmm..." Buu thought, scrunching up his face in concentration. "Xentron, Buu think." he said. Then he floated past them and waved good-bye. "Buu hungry, Buu go find cake now. Bye-bye."


	36. Aftermath

_Chapter Thirty-six - Aftermath_

North Kai smiled as he watched the on going... spar. Well, that's what he and Chaotzu were calling it. Really, it was more of a one sided pounding. Chaotzu hadn't even been touched yet while Tien, Enzeru, and Mitsuki were all bruised and exhausted. It was the same thing that had happened every time they'd spared over the last nine days. Of course, the little guy had the advantage of a dead body, of being stronger than even Enzeru, and of course there was...

"Kaioken!" Chaotzu called, surging in toward Enzeru, faster than the blue haired woman could see, and kicking her in the stomach, doubling her over. He then zipped up above her and smashed his foot into the back of her head, driving her down into the ground of the Kai's small planetoid, and into unconsciousness. Meanwhile Tien and Mitsuki charged at him together but he suddenly vanished from where he'd been, appeared behind them, and fired off twin blasts of blue energy that slammed into their backs with a loud bang.

Tien wavered in the air for a moment and then fell from the sky as he passed out as well. Mitsuki, however, whirled on the small Human and fired off a stream of energy but Chaotzu blocked it with ease and then was suddenly in front of her slamming the elbow of a short arm into her face. As the woman wavered and then fell to the ground with the other two the North Kai turned his attention back to the moral world for a moment. 18 and the others were due on Saiya soon and he wanted to see how far away they were. _"Oh, closer than I thought."_ he thought, spotting their ship descending through the planet's atmosphere.

Turning his focus back to his own world he quickly moved about the fallen fighters, channeling a little power into them to bring them back to wakefulness. As Enzeru stirred he turned to where Yamcha and Krillin were still trying to hit Gregory. "They've arrived." he called over.

Krillin lost his hold on the mallet and it went sailing off and smashed through one of the windows on the Kai's small house, but he ignored it and hurried over to the Kai's side. Marron clambered out of her seat and hurried over to join them as well, nearly tripping over her own feet in her haste. A moment later they were looking in on Saiya during the conversation between the two sides.

"You have to understand." Gohan was saying. "We..."

"I understand just fine." Bra interrupted.

"I... never dreamed... they'd tear apart from the inside." Krillin said softly.

"Especially not over something like this." Enzeru added.

Marron couldn't help but agree with them, especially since she was the reason this was all happening. More than anything that had happened since waking up on Saiya two months ago she found this the most unbelievable. She still couldn't think of herself as anything but just another random person, no one special. So the idea that her death could cause something like this... it seemed crazy to her.

"Marron was my Mate." Bra said, drawing the blonde's attention back to the on going conversation on Saiya. "You can't honestly think I'd just roll over, let you get away with killing her? I intend to see justice done." Marron couldn't help it, she started crying again. Fortunately, through the link the Kai was providing, tears didn't seem to impede her vision any.

A few moments later 18 began to glow. "What... is that!" Krillin cried as the Cyborg finished her transformation.

_"She transformed?"_ the Kai wondered. _"Not the natural transformation, though. Altered by Gero's genetic tweaking, perhaps? This is quite unexpected. I had thought that her genetic alterations, as well as her power being from a generator and not her own ki, prevented this."_

"When did... did that happen?" Marron stammered. She'd never seen it before and Vegeta apparently hadn't either.

"Hard to say." said the North Kai as 18 slugged Vegeta. "Though I would assume it's how she was able to kill Trunks."

They watched on in silence for a while until... "I... hadn't realized she'd picked up so many of our moves." Yamcha said as 18 fired off the Kamehameha.

"It makes sense." said Krillin. "She'd already had the generator then so she could use energy attacks. She could practice everything she saw in private."

"What's with the odd energy, though?" asked Enzeru.

Mitsuki glanced over at her sister for a moment before looking back at the battle again. She was still getting the hang of sensing ki so she'd thought it was just her poor skills. "That's not just me, then?" she asked. "I can't focus on it for long with hurting my head."

"No, I can feel it too." said Tien. "Any ideas, North Kai?"

The Kai pursed his lips a little. He'd noticed the odd nature of the energy coming from 18 as well but had no idea what it meant. "Maybe its related to her generator. Some sort of over lap between her ki and the artificial energy she normally uses." he suggested. It was the only theory he had and it made some level of sense. The unnatural energy could easily be distorting the flow of her ki causing the power fluctuations and pattern shifts they were feeling.

They watched in silence again then until 18 unleashed her final attack. "A-amazing!" Marron cried in shock.

"She... stood at the center of that?" Chaotzu wondered in shock.

"It's normally a planet destroying attack." the small Kai said. "Fired from an altitude it can blast its way down into a planet's core and rip the world apart from the inside with relative ease. Especially with her new level of power. Detonated on the surface like this there's little chance of planetary destruction but it would be devastating to anything caught in the blast. That bubble that formed around her, though, was a safe zone. The attack wont hurt her." As the light faded, and he saw 18 on one knee, he frowned. She obviously hadn't been harmed by the attack but she seemed exhausted. _"Maybe she's just not used to having expendable energy and burned through it too fast."_ the Kai thought.

Marron suddenly smiled as Bra flew out to shield 18. "See?" she said. "I told you Bra would protect her." Krillin didn't say anything, but he smiled as well.

"And so another leaves..." Enzeru said in shock as she watched Videl enter the saucer ship right before the Kai cut the link. "If they keep this up we wont even have to fight them."

"Yeah, well, I'm not going to hold my breath." said Yamcha, turning back toward where Gregory was now laying on the ground napping. "Time to get back to work."

XXX

Bulma had nearly fallen over when the explosions had shaken the palace. And then the sirens had sounded and she knew. They'd come at last. She'd rushed over to her terminal and watched the battle, start to finish. She was scared for Bra, but the fact that Vegeta didn't launch his attack at her made her feel a little better at least. As she watched Videl and Buu follow after the four of them she sighed in relief, Bra would be safe now, for a little while longer. Turning from the screen she looked over at her equations again. "Though... this might explain a few things..." she said to herself. Ever since Bra had left she'd been working on her equations almost non-stop, going from the events of Gorneo onward. Both to know what effect it would have and in the hope of learning Bra would stay safe.

She'd first noticed the issues shortly before Videl had come to visit her that day eighteen days ago. Things weren't adding up. That was still normal with the predictive model, she'd not yet gotten the Dragons properly factored in so discrepancies were still rampant in it. But her stability model wasn't adding up anymore, either, and that hadn't made sense to her. She'd factored in everything, she'd thought. She had thought the deaths of everyone on Gorneo, including Marron and Trunks, had been the only major power shifts that day. At least, in innate strength. The power dynamic of the entire universe had shifted then, with the departure of four Masters and the death of a fifth.

At first she wondered if what had happened to Cold and Inferna was related to the discrepancies. She'd run a model factoring that in but it still came out wrong. More wrong than it had with them out, so she'd removed them again. She'd even worked in Marron's power spike, giving her a level matching Gohan's since she didn't have exact figures for her. She couldn't figure how a Human, one without any training at all at that, could have had so much power though. And her stability equation agreed. Putting Marron in with anything more than the 9 that was in her civilian record file skewed the results. As far as the universe was concerned that was Marron's maximum level of power.

That also had her confused. The fact that Bra had witnessed the power spike told her that it had actually happened, Vegeta hadn't just invented it as an excuse to eliminate Marron. But it made no sense. Trunks and Bra had _sensed_ the power spike which meant it _had_ to be ki. But ki drew upon the natural Ether reserves of the universe and returned to the natural Ether reserves when the wielder died. If Marron's power had spiked to over nine million then she should have released nine million back into the system when she died. But she hadn't. The skewed results were proof of that. She had a few ideas for what might have caused it, but nothing solid. She'd even gone over the DNA file Capsule Corp. had on her from the girl's application, but nothing on it seemed to account for the power either.

She decided to put it aside for the time being, however. 18's transformation was a new factor, something she could work on. One that Bulma thought might account for her distorted equation. It was a power shift she hadn't previously known of. So she quickly set about re-working her math from the Gorneo period and beyond. Previously 18 hadn't drawn upon ki at all, her actual ki level had only been 4. Now, however, she did. Bulma wasn't sure how much of the woman's power was still supplied by her generator, not that it really mattered. That power was artificial. Created by the generator and fully dissipated afterwards, no effect on the Ether or universal stability.

But her ki level had increased. She'd checked with the scanners while watching the fight, having noticed the odd aura. The highest level she'd read during the battle had been 250,000,000, though it hadn't stayed there long. Constantly fluxing between 235,000,000 and 250,000,000 and sometimes dropping even lower. Since it had never gone over the 250 mark Bulma figured it was a viable maximum to put her at and began plugging it into the equation. She wasn't sure how the absorption and dissipation would work with 18, though. She figured she'd have to reverse engineer that bit from information she gathered around it.

After about a half hour she finally finished working out the equation and stepped back to look it over again. "Hmmm?" she wondered, blinking. She moved her gaze back and went over it again. "What? But... that's not..." She moved back a step further and gave the boards another look then moved over to her SyncScope to look at it. It was now displaying a red 85. She twisted the knob back and set it to just before the battle between 18 and Vegeta and the 85 became an 87 and she stared at in shock. It was the first decrease she'd seen in... years.

Pushing a button on the side she let the scope flow forward through time again and watched closely. Suddenly the line on the scope started going crazy and the 87 began to drop. 86... 85... 84... 80... 75... 69 "What... the..." The number finally stopped at 65 and held there as the line on the screen stabilized again. It held for a few moments and then began to slowly tick up again. When it hit 74 it held there for several minutes before the line on the scope flat-lined for a second, then the number jumped to the 85 it had been at when Bulma had approached it.

The Human rubbed her temples as she stared at the screen of the scope. That just didn't make any sense, but neither did her equation. The equation refused to accept the 250,000,000 reading that 18 had put out. It was skewed off even more now, with the Cyborg's new power added in, than it had been before. Just like with... "Wait a second..." she said, twisting the knob back again. Once more the scope rewound in its records of the universe's energy levels. Back and back she went, back eighteen days to Gorneo. She watched the time display in the corner and stopped about an hour or so before Bra had broken into the meeting. The red number was now 72.

Once again she watched as the scope suddenly went crazy, though not nearly as much as what she'd just seen. And again the numbers dropped. 71, 70, 69, 68, down to 62 before stopping. And then, a few moments later, they climbed back up. But it stopped at 71, it didn't go all the way back up. Swallowing a lump that had formed in her throat Bulma twisted the knob again and went back further, all the way back to the day that Kakkarotto and Buu had fought, the day that Marron's power had spiked. She made a guess as to when that was and set the scope to a few minutes before it.

The number at the bottom now read 65. She watched closely as the time on the display ticked away, waiting, holding her breath. And then it happened again. The scope went crazy, the number on the screen dove down. 64, 60, 55, all the way down to 50 in a fraction of a second, and then right back up again, but stopping at only 62 instead of 65. She remembered her conversation with Marron that day, following Buu's defeat. Marron had read it at only 63 then, she'd seen the 62 reading now on the screen but not the higher reading from before.

"But... why?" Bulma wondered, setting the scope back to the present. "How? How would Marron's power spike _restore_ the flow of Ether? Why would 18's transformation do the same?" She turned and looked over at her equation. "And if the two of them were adding to the fl..." Bulma's eyes widened and she hurried over to her board again, quickly erasing the equation she'd done factoring in 18's transformation. She could think of only one possible explanation for what she'd seen in the scopes. It made no real sense to her, it should be impossible, but it was the only answer. No matter how improbable it was if the equation supported it...

It took her nearly an hour to work it all out, factoring in just what she knew. Marron's power spike, 18's transformation on Gorneo and again on Saiya... And it worked. It wasn't perfect, she could tell that, there were still holes, but it was correcting the errors she'd found in her equation. Errors that hadn't made sense before, but did now. "By... the... Kais...!" Bulma breathed, eyes widening as she dropped her chalk.

XXX

"Interesting." Gero mused, rubbing his chin. He'd brought up a recording of the fight between Vegeta and 18 and just finished viewing it. "I'm not sure what could have caused that. It wasn't something I designed, that much I know. And it certainly couldn't have been chance, something that complex... no, not chance. With all the missions she's been on, though..." he shrugged.

"Outside tampering?" asked Vegeta.

"Possible. Not highly likely, but possible." Gero reached out and flicked off the monitor. "Not that it really matters."

"No, I suppose not." replied the Sai-jin. He'd only just gotten out of the Regen Tanks a little while ago. He hadn't been seriously injured but he'd been sore and hadn't felt like waiting days for his injuries to heal. The first thing he'd done after exiting the tank was head down to Gero's labs to speak with him. "This changes things with pursuing her and the others, though. I don't think your plan will work, now."

"Oh, it will work." Gero said. Vegeta raised an eyebrow at that as the scientist turned from his computer to face him and continued. "I've already made all the needed adjustments and modifications. I even took into account the unlikely chance Pan would ascend to the fourth level during my design work, thus 18's new power is still well within range. Of course, this makes the control all the more important. At peak power they will be even stronger than you are. Near comparable to Gohan's maximum, I would expect. It depends on how much energy loss is incurred while running in combination, something I can't fully anticipate or adjust for without more time. Unimportant, though. Even without full calibration it'll be more than enough to get the job done."

Vegeta frowned. He knew that Gero knew what he was talking about but he found it... hard to believe that a machine could possess more power than him. Though 18 had certainly come close to matching him, and she'd definitely done better in the fight. He'd have lost for sure if she hadn't worn herself out so fast. "Do you have something in mind for that control?" he asked at last.

"In fact, I do." replied Gero. "A system I developed several years ago but have not had the chance to fully utilize. I ran numerous tests with a variety of subjects so I know it works and is effective but I've never had need to use it in actual application. I call it the Mind Digitization System, or MDS. The MDS can effectively transfer a mind from a living organic being into a computerized brain of my design thusly transforming that person into a machine. The transfer isn't perfect, the end result is not an identical mind to the original, but the majority of traits and factors remain unchanged. I just need you to find me three people you believe are good for the task. One with leadership qualities and two others who will follow his orders."

"What about Gohan, Kakkarotto, and myself?"

Gero shook his head. "The process destroys the mind of the, er, donor." he said. "Renders them effectively brain dead. Besides, even if it didn't I figure it would be unwise to have two Sai-jin Kings running around. It is also important that they are willing participants with full knowledge of what is to happen. It is the only way to ensure they wont resent the procedure and defect in time themselves."

Vegeta had to admit that Gero had a point there about a second Sai-jin King. "Alright. I can think of a few who would be suitable for this. I'll check around, see if I can entice a few of them into it. How long before you can actually do the procedure?"

"I still have a few things to finish up." he said. "I'll be ready for our donors in about three days, you can bring down the volunteers any time after that." Gero then pursed his lips in thought. "You said that Videl has gone with 18 and the others, yes?"

"Yes."

"Hmm. Well, I didn't install any of the failsafes in her that I did in the twins, I figured she had little chance of defecting. And it _was_ something of a rush job." he said, turning back to his computer. "However, her nano-bots do have their own built in tracers that I can track. It's not as accurate as the tracer systems I used in the twins, though. I'll be able to pinpoint an area of a planet but not an exact location. Still, a few hundred square miles to search is better than an entire universe." He typed in a few commands and then the screen switched to a computer rendition of space with a blinking green dot. "Seems Buu was right." he said after a moment. "Their current course has them on route to Xentron."

XXX

Pan sat on her bed resting her head back against the wall of the ship with her eyes closed, listening to the hum of the engines. Her pulse was only just starting to return to normal now and they'd made their escape from Saiya nearly three hours ago. She'd been sure, the entire time, that some sort of pursuit would happen. She couldn't believe that Vegeta would just let them go like this, especially as close as 18 had come to beating him back there. She opened her eyes again after a few moments, when she heard footsteps entering the room she'd taken for herself on the ship. She hadn't sensed any ki so it wasn't Bra, but that still left three people, though only two who she figured would walk in without knocking.

"Mom." she said, smiling a little. As upset and disappointed as she was with her father and grandfather, after what she'd learned on Saiya, she was happy her mom had come. It was bad enough that the two Sai-jins were now, effectively, her enemies. She wasn't sure if she could have taken losing her entire family.

"How are you doing?" Videl asked, sitting down on the end of the bed.

"I'm alright." Pan said, shaking her head. "It's Bra and 18 I'm worried about."

"Well, it's _you_ I'm worried about." her mother said with a sigh. "Any idea what we're going to do from here?"

"Nope. We're sort of making this all up as we go." she said with a laugh. "17 said we're going out to the fringes, to some world called Xentron. From there... I don't know. I figure 18's going to want to take another crack at Vegeta eventually, before he has too much time to get even stronger..."

"I can't believe how close she got." Videl said slowly. "If she hadn't exhausted herself so fast..."

"Yeah." Pan looked from her mother to the door as it opened again and 17 came in. "Still no one after us?"

He shook his head. "And we're outside of tracking range of all the sensors in the Saiya system. I guess the ship was just too fast for them to even bother chasing. I've got it on auto-pilot now."

"I was worried they'd shoot us down once we got into space." Videl said.

"Ha, not a chance." Pan laughed. "That would work on you, me, and Bra but 17 and 18 could have just kept going under their own power. It's easier to follow and find a ship than a single person." She sighed again as she turned her gaze back to 17 who was now leaning against the wall near the door. "17... I'm sorry about... back there. About even asking..."

He waved it off. "It's fine. I know why you did." he said.

"How come you... never told me?" she asked, addressing them both.

"I didn't want to admit to having any part of it." said Videl, turning her gaze away.

17 shrugged. "I knew there was nothing that could be done about it. Telling you would have just... You're not like your father or grandfather. You're still... pure. I didn't want to ruin that, or ruin your view of them."

Pan laughed. "Pure?" she asked. "I wouldn't call myself that. I'm no where near 'pure'. I've done too much, spilt too much blood, killed too many people, for that."

"You care about all of them, though." said 17. "You still... have nightmares, about some of your missions. I don't think any of them have ever had a bad night's sleep."

Pan turned her gaze away, toward the floor, but her mother was looking toward 17 and missed it as she laughed. "I don't know if they have, but I do know they've probably been rather cold at night lately."

Pan blinked. "Huh?"

"After all of you... took off." Videl began. "I tried kicking Gohan out of our room, Bulma and Chi-Chi tried the same with Vegeta and Kakkarotto, but..." she shrugged. "It's not exactly an easy thing to accomplish. So we moved in to Bulma's study, we've all set up cots there. It's where we've been sleeping for the last couple weeks. I know Gohan figured I'd be back after a few days, I figure the others thought the same, but we've barely even talked to them since then."

Pan couldn't help but smile at that. Vegeta, Kakkarotto, and Gohan were all distinctly Sai-jin in mindset and personality. There were only two places you could hit a Sai-jin, outside of a fight, and make them feel it. The first was the stomach, but as the women had no control over what or how much the three men ate they'd chosen the second option. The bedroom.

XXX

Bra sat at 18's bedside, wiping the woman's forehead with a wet washcloth. The Cyborg was still in considerable pain. The Hybrid agreed with 17, this wasn't just a simple case of exhaustion. "You sure you don't want me to take you to a Regen Tank?" Bra asked.

18 nodded. "I'll be fine." she said. "I've felt a lot worse before. My internal systems are already dealing with it."

The Hybrid sighed. "I don't get it, father didn't hurt you this much. You had control of the fight, so why...?"

"The form, or the power, or something." 18 said, closing her eyes. "Whatever it is... it hurts to use it for long. It causes internal damage."

Bra's eyes widened. "What? You mean... you were hurting yourself during the fight with my father?"

"Yeah." 18 said, tilting her head slightly so she could look at Bra. "I'm not sure why but my guess is my body just can't handle the power. I am just a normal Human, after all, ignoring the cybernetics. My cybernetics are the only reason I'm still alive. The nano-bots were healing the damage as it happened, even if they couldn't keep up with it. Without them..." She shook her head. "Look, don't tell Pan or 17." she said after a moment. "I don't want them worrying. I need that power if I'm going to beat Vegeta."

Bra closed her eyes and sighed. "But what about your safety?"

"Not important." said 18, turning to look at the ceiling again and grimacing at a new wave of pain down in her legs. "I don't care if I die, so long as I take Vegeta with me."

"Don't say that!" Bra cried, startling the Cyborg and drawing her eyes back to her. "You can't just give up on living like that!"

18 blinked a few times and then smiled a little as she understood. "Bra, I'm not Marron..."

"I know that." Bra said. "I'm not trying to replace her with you. But... you're all I've got left of her. I'm not going to let you just die like that. No way."

"Like today? Jumping in between your father and I?"

The Hybrid nodded. "Yeah. He already took Marron from me, I'm not... going to let him take you, too. No way. Besides I... I promised Marron."

"What do you mean?"

"Back on Zendavou." Bra explained. "While I was... I was carving the picture on the stone. I promised her, on my life, that I'd look after you, keep you safe." She laughed a little then and wiped away the tears that were threatening to start again. "Of course, I didn't know about your transformation then, that you were like ten times stronger than me now. But that doesn't change the promise, I made it and I'm keeping it. I meant what I said to father back there, if he wants to kill you then he's got to go through me, first."

18 smiled and closed her eyes, tears leaking out at the corners. "Marron was lucky." she said softly.

"No." said Bra, shaking her head. "I was the lucky one."

XXX

The yellow crystal was now glowing bright enough to bathe the entire chamber in yellow light. Suddenly a crack snaked up from the base of the crystal to the top, more cracks snaking out all around the crystal from the first. And then, with a thunderous bang, the crystal shattered and exploded. The light remained, however, floating a few inches above the ground. Slowly it began to gather together and then, in a bright flash, the light was gone and a figure stood in the alcove the crystal had once occupied.

The person was about five foot nine and decked out in armor, like an ancient knight. The armor seemed to be made of crystal and was deep blue with bright yellow trim and a light blue cape. It was comprised of boots, shin guards, thigh guards, forearm and upper arm guards, breast plate, and helmet. There were slats going up vertical over the mouth so his voice could be heard, and a thin slat going across his face so he could see out. Beneath the cape were two crossed blue scabbards with gold trim. Inside the helmet the man opened his glowing white eyes, breath misted out through the slats in the face plate, and he turned his head toward the ceiling and the opening above him.

With a quick push of his legs he leapt up out of the chamber.


	37. The First

**Part Five: The Hunt**

_Chapter Thirty-seven - The First_

"Still no more signs of our visitors?" Inferna asked. Fyuu shook his head. Cold had placed the Fyuu Elite Guard on, well, guard duty. Next to him and her they were the strongest. Inferna had left her own elite fighters back in the South Galaxy with her daughter, in case anyone decided her absence would be a good time to try and overthrow her Empire. None of the other soldiers on Cold's ship, or the ones on hers, would even be enough to deal with the odd creatures that had assaulted them, and subsequently dissolved into nothing three hours after dying.

Inferna just nodded to him as she walked past into the room he was stationed in front of. It was the room she and Cold had been examining before, when the researcher had come to tell them about the translation of the writing in the Grand Hall. The round one with the unknown machine. The machine was no longer unknown, however. Their men had determined that it was the recording device the man in the orb had said they'd used to make the recording they'd witnessed. "Progress?" she demanded, looking at one of her researchers.

"We're getting somewhere, now." the man said. "The technology is... it's incredible. The way this thing works... we didn't even know half of it was possible to do. It'll take some time yet, to get a complete grasp on how it functions, but we should have enough of the essentials understood to begin building our extractor system within the next few... er... days?" he shrugged and she waved it off. Time was quite irrelevant in this place.

"So it is possible, then?"

"Oh, sure." the man said. "The computer language used by the system is still binary. We'll have to break all of the data down to that base level to process and convert it but, in the end, even with the vast differences in design and technological level, binary data is still binary data."

"Good." Inferna said, nodding. She was agreed with Cold in this, transferring the data from that orb into their computers was a top priority, especially now that the Grand Hall translation work was slowing. They'd learned about as much as they could from those writings. Now the data on the one orb they had was what they both wanted to see. Well, that and the data in the other orbs, though they had not yet figured out how to safely remove them from the walls.

As she looked over the room she couldn't help but feel annoyed, yet again, at their attackers. Cold had been quite right, they couldn't risk losing what few men they had, which meant exploration of the palace had slowed considerably since their appearance. The two of them could still go off on their own to explore, but if they found anything interesting they wouldn't be able to have it investigated for a while as they had a limited number of guards to protect the scientists with. It was really quite frustrating, having such a large and intriguing place open to them but not being able to explore it with ease.

She was turning to leave, to go check on the progress in the Record Orb room and then head to her ship for something to eat, when it happened. Bright yellow light washed out from the walls, the floors, the ceiling, even the machine in the room. The researchers all stopped in their work and looked up and around as Inferna made her way back out of the room to where Fyuu stood. He was already using his scouter to talk to the others. "Rikoo and Yiku report the same phenomenon." he reported a moment later. "Neither is picking up any power levels on their scouters, though."

"I don't want to but... we should call everyone back to the Grand Hall, just to be safe." Inferna said, remembering the mention of the disappearances caused by a red light. This light wasn't red but, just the same, she'd rather avoid the possibility. Fyuu nodded and issued the withdrawal command to the other two and then he and Inferna lead the group in the room behind them back to the Grand Hall. Theirs was the last group to arrive and Cold was there waiting for them.

"I saw the light." he said. "The entire palace glowed with it. Any ideas?"

"None yet." Inferna replied. "I had everyone pull out just to be safe, though."

Cold nodded and turned his gaze toward the statue of Souzousha. The only door in or out of the room, aside from the building's exit, lay behind it. If there was anything more to this light it would come from there. The group stood gathered in near silence for several moments before Cold heard it. A soft clunking sound. Metal on stone. Rhythmic, like footsteps. He couldn't sense any powers, however. Though a moment later Fyuu's scouter went off.

"Reading?" asked Cold.

"One." replied Fyuu, frowning.

"It would seem our new guest is able to suppress his power." said Inferna as the sound of the footsteps rounded the statue ahead of them. It was a man in blue and yellow armor, face hidden inside his helmet.

"You are trespassing on sacred ground. The penalty for this is death." the man said as he came to a stop in front of the statue, his voice a deep baritone and only slightly muffled by his helmet.

"Straight to the point, are we?" Inferna asked, raising an eyebrow. "If you intend to try and kill us you'll have a time of it, I can assure you."

"I am Jikoku, first of the Shitennou. If you think you can defeat me you are welcome to try." He inclined his head slightly and seemed to look past Cold and Inferna, out the door. "But outside, away from the shrine."

"I'll take this one." Inferna said, turning to look up at Cold.

The Changeling nodded. "Very well, but be careful. This one is clearly different from those others." He turned and motioned to Fyuu and the three elite fighters lead the rest of the gathering out of the building, Inferna and Cold following and Jikoku bringing up the rear. Cold had their men move the ships back a good distance as Inferna and Jikoku turned to face each other, a hundred yards from the stairs into the palace and only twenty yards from each other.

"It's not like we asked to be here, you know." Inferna said, slipping into a fighting stance. "Or to be stuck here."

Jikoku reached behind him and drew his swords, a gleaming golden one and a black one so polished its surface was like a mirror. "The law is absolute." he said. "No exceptions will be made. Its sleep must not be disturbed." And then suddenly he lunged at her. His power increased quickly as he charged and soon he'd surpassed her own power. In the span of five seconds his power had increased five million fold. The Valkano was only just able to avoid being impaled on the man's gleaming golden sword, and only because he'd not used his full speed.

"Impressive." she said, taking a few steps back from him. "You certainly are a different order of being than those others."

"As I said, I am Jikoku, first of the Shitennou."

She gave him a small bow. "And I am Inferna, Queen of the South Galaxy." she said as she clenched her hands into fists. There was a sudden cracking pop as a bladed spike emerged from the armor around her right forearm. Then another as the same happened on the left. The skin of her head, directly above her ears, split open then as a pair of small horns began to emerge, her shoulder length red hair grew in length, her height began to increase, the armor over her upper body grew down over her abdomen, and her skin began to darken. A moment later the transformation was over and she now stood in her second form, five feet eight inches tall with waist length red hair, dark orange skin, a pair of small three inch black horns just above her ears, and foot long bladed spikes emerging from her forearms.

With the change in appearance came also a change in power and she lunged at Jikoku even faster than he'd lunged at her. With a resounding crack she slammed a right hook into his helmeted head and sent him flying backward. In a burst of red she shot after him. He recovered before she reached him and moved to dodge but she shifted her angle and her kick still smacked into his chest knocking him over onto his back. With a cry she thrust her left arm out and fired off a blast of energy but the red orb suddenly shifted direction mid flight and flew down into his black sword.

Inferna blinked and then scowled as Jikoku climbed back to his feet. His armor wasn't even dented and his power hadn't dropped in the least. She was more than twice his strength now, ten times stronger than she'd been before, and she'd put most of her power into those attacks. She'd expected him to be, at the very least, dazed. But he seemed wholly unfazed. _"Perhaps that armor of his is more resistant than it looks."_ she thought. _"Well, it doesn't matter. With my power advantage this will still be a one sided battle."_

"Impressive." Jikoku said, parroting Inferna's previous comment.

The Valkano Queen couldn't resist. "As I said, I am Inferna, Queen of the South Galaxy." She smirked as he returned the small bow she'd given him before. Whoever, and whatever, he was, she liked him.

"It has been nearly a hundred million years since I fought someone from one of the Four Galaxies with enough power to even hit me." Jikoku said, brushing off the front of his armor. And then he began to glow yellow and in a bright flash his power doubled. When the glare subsided it showed that his armor had changed. It was now wholly yellow and seemed to be coursing with energy. There were now also small spikes on his shoulders, one pair pointing straight up, one pair angled up and out to the side, and one pair straight out. There were also spikes on each knuckle now, too, and yellow bolts of energy crackled around his body on occasion. Inferna scowled again as Jikoku charged her. She was still stronger than him by a fair amount, enough she felt she could control the fight, but it was still annoying.

She slipped around the swipe of his golden sword and blocked the swing of the black one with the blade coming off her right arm. Then her foot snapped up and slammed into his stomach shoving him back. She followed up with another blast of red energy but, once again, it swerved away from him and flowed into his black sword. _"I'd thought that's what I'd seen."_ she mused, lunging at him again and taking a swing for his head that he deflected with the flat of his golden sword before smashing the hilt of the black one into her face.

As she stumbled back she reached out and gripped the hilt of the black sword, just above his own grip, and gave it a yank. She managed to tear it from his grasp and then pitched it behind her where it came down point first and imbedded itself in the ground. It had been a lot heavier than it looked, so it had only gone ten feet when she tossed it, but with the sword out of the way she thrust her arm forward again and fired off another blast of energy. It was only inches from hitting him when suddenly it vanished in a flash of black and she scowled more. His black sword was back in his hand again.

"Inferna!" Cold called.

She turned and saw him drawing his own silver sword and then giving it a toss toward her. She caught the hilt of it, gave it a quick flourish, him a small nod of thanks, and then turned back to her fight. She'd not used a sword in nearly a hundred years, she hoped she wasn't too rusty. She'd had a good look at Cold's sword back on Earth, at least. He'd had it specially forged from the strongest metal they had access to so it was highly resilient, even against an opponent significantly stronger than its wielder. Beyond that it had very small pathways snaking all through it, and millions of tiny openings along its surface, through which ki could be channeled.

Typically anyone using a melee weapon had to sheath it in a fine layer of ki in order to fortify it against damage. The metal of a sword would shatter against anyone capable of breaking that metal unless the wielder protected and enhanced the blade with their energy. But with the ki channels and pores in Cold's sword the wielder could flow their ki directly into the weapon strengthening it further than a normal blade, not just against damage but for making damage as well. It took Inferna a few seconds to get the feel of it and properly channel her ki through the pathways, she'd never used such a weapon before and it took a level of skill to do it as well as Cold did, a level of skill she didn't have. Still, she figured it would be more than sufficient.

Just as she finished channeling her ki into the sword Jikoku made another slash at her with his golden sword and she quickly brought hers up to block and deflect the swing. There was a loud clang of metal on metal but Cold's sword held, didn't even chip, and Jikoku's was redirected away from her head. Inferna stepped in then, thrust out her left fist, and smashed it into his face. As he stumbled back she spun around and lashed out with a kick to the side of his head that dropped him onto his stomach. Quickly she jumped forward and thrust her sword down in an attempt to impale him but Jikoku rolled out of the way at the last second and the sword stabbed only the ground. He then swept his leg out taking Inferna's out from under her.

Inferna thrust an arm down as she fell and pushed off as soon as it hit, thrusting her legs out as she went and slamming a kick into the armored man's midsection. He stumbled back a step which gave her enough time to get to her feet and pull the sword back out of the ground. She took a swing at him with it but he blocked it with his gold sword and then thrust the black one at her. She moved to the side quickly, but not quick enough, and it sliced a gash into her upper right arm. Blood flowed from the cut as she recoiled back from the blade.

_"That thing can absorb energy from me just as easily as it can absorb my attacks."_ she realized. She'd felt some of her ki being sucked out of her when the blade had sliced in. _"And I'm guessing if that sword has special properties then so does the gold one. I'd rather not find out what it can do."_ She spun around quickly, getting out of the reach of Jikoku's black sword as he slashed it through the air again, and using hers to block the golden one as she went by. She slashed out with her sword at his back but he suddenly vanished. _"After image or teleportation?"_ she wondered, spinning around and looking for some sign of him.

She'd stopped actively tracking his power level shortly after his transformation. Ever since then it kept shifting in odd ways that made her head hurt. The level never changed, but the pattern of the energy didn't seem to be stable. It made her dizzy and nauseous to try and focus on it for more than a few seconds. She locked on to his power again easily enough, beyond being the only power of its level its odd nature made it stand out. _"What's he doing?"_ she wondered, looking up into the sky where he floated nearly a hundred feet up.

He had his swords raised above his head, a ball of yellow energy charging between them. It was the first sign of a ki attack he'd done yet and she'd been wondering if he could. He suddenly brought his arms and swords down firing the attack at her at high speed. She barely had time to drop her sword and thrust her arms up to catch and deflect it before it reached her. As soon as it touched her hands her eyes widened. _"He charged something _this _strong _that _fast?"_ she thought in shock. Her eyes widened further, this time in pain, as a foot slammed into the small of her back, the impact hurting even through her natural body armor.

The impact made her stumble forward and lose her hold on the energy in her hands causing it to explode and blast her backward where Jikoku was thrusting his black sword toward her. There was a loud clang a second later as the point of the black blade hit her armor and bounced off to the side. The impact made her stumble forward again, trip, and fall. As she went down she thrust her arms out, pushed off against the ground, and flipped back up onto her feet, turning to face Jikoku again, scowling. She was just glad that her armor was enough to stop his sword or he'd have her impaled through the abdomen, back to front, right now.

She lunged in toward him again, picking Cold's sword up again as she did, and took another slash at him. He deflected it with his gold sword and countered with a slash from the black. Inferna brought her arm up and blocked with one of her armor blades again. Then she opened her mouth and fired off a blast of red energy only two feet from Jikoku's helmeted head. The blast started to hook away but it had been launched too close and still slammed into the man's shoulder. As he stumbled under the impact she thrust her sword free hand out, smashed her open palm into his chest, and nailed him with a point blank energy blast that sent him sailing back two hundred yards before he pulled himself to a stop.

"Holy Blade!" called Jikoku. Inferna took a step back and readied herself as his swords suddenly began to glow white, and then energy engulfed them doubling their lengths. And then he charged her again. Inferna scowled and then charged in at him as well, channeling more energy into the sword in her right hand. As she neared Jikoku's newly increased striking distance the man gave a hard swing with his black sword and Inferna brought up hers quickly. There was a flash of red as sword met energy blade and then the energy blade was deflected to the side.

Jikoku was already swinging with the gold sword, however, and Inferna brought up an arm to deflect the energy blade that extended from it with an armor blade. She heard the grinding sound first, then felt the tug on her arm and knew what it was without looking. The energy blade was slicing through her armor. She veered off to the side, pushing the energy blade from the black sword out of the way, and then pulled back. Once out of the reach of his swords again she brought her arm up and looked at the damage done.

The top eight inches of the blade spike had been cut clean off and she scowled. The damage would be gone as soon as she reverted, the next time she transformed the blade would be back in perfect condition, but the fact he could now slice through her armor that easily was not appealing in the least. One false move and his blades could cut her clean in half. With the new reach of his swords she wouldn't even be able to get within striking distance, now. Not without transforming again, at least. But that would make things far too easy.

_"I'll see what I can do like this."_ she thought. _"If I have to then I'll transform again, but not unless it's my only option. Still, this calls for a new plan of action... I just wish I had one."_ She scowled as Jikoku charged at her again. She took off backwards to prolong the amount of time she had to think before he was in striking distance again. He was still a good distance away when she smirked, tightened her grip on her sword, and focused her energy into the blade again. She wasn't entirely sure if could do it or not but there was only one way to find out. He was almost on her now, pulling back his black blade to take a swing at her, and then the white energy blade was cutting through the air toward her head.

With a yell she brought her sword up, red energy flaring up around it, and pointed it at Jikoku. There was a loud crack and a bright flash as energy surged out along the sword quickly doubling the length of the blade, then another flash of red as energy blade met energy blade and Jikoku's was deflected to the side. The armored man came to a stop then as Inferna brought her arm down, red energy coursing down from her elbow, over the sword, and then going beyond its tip another five feet. He had two eight foot long blades, she had one, but hers was _ten_ foot.

_"Not bad."_ she thought, bringing the blade up in front of her for a better look. _"No way I could have done this with just any sword, though. Channeling my energy through this blade... its like the sword is an extension of me, now."_ She turned her gaze back up from the blade and looked at Jikoku again. There were a few things she had been wanting to ask for a while now and this short lull seemed a good enough time as any to do so. "So, you said you were the first of the Shitennou, right?" she asked. "I take it that means there are more of you around?" Jikoku remained silent. "Alright, that's fine, but what are you, exactly? Certainly not any race I've seen before... You one of the ones that built this palace?"

"Palace?" Jikoku asked. "It is not a palace. It is a shrine. A shrine to the goddess Souzousha and the two greatest heroes of Nigiro."

_"Well, now we're getting somewhere."_ she thought. "That still doesn't answer my question."

"As I said, I am the first of the Shitennou."

"So, not one of the race that built this 'shrine' then?" Silence again, so Inferna decided to press on the subject that he seemed willing to discuss. "Ok, what about this Souzousha?" she asked. "We've seen the statue but I've never heard of her before coming here."

"Few in the Four Galaxies remember her now." Jikoku said. "Time erodes memory, old things are forgotten, new things take their place. But though few still remember her she is eternal and will, one day, return."

"And she created the universe?"

"Yes. This one and many others before it."

Inferna blinked. _"Others?"_ she wondered. She lowered her arm a little further, the energy blade fading slightly as she lessened the power she was sending to it for now. "What do you mean, others before it?"

Jikoku laughed. "Do you really believe you are the first?" he asked. "That no others could have come and gone before you?"

"But... entire universes don't just vanish."

"Of course not. They did not vanish, they were destroyed. Wiped out of existence by the antithesis of Souzousha, the Destroyer, the God of Destruction." Jikoku shifted positions a little then and brought one of his swords up to point at Inferna. "You may take solace in the fact that you will die here before he comes again." And, with that, he lunged at her once more.

Inferna scowled, she'd not finished with her questions yet. She still wanted to ask if Nigiro was the name of the world they were on and about the heroes that Jikoku had mentioned. The man, however, didn't appear to be in the mood to continue the conversation. She quickly brought her energy blade back to full power and then thrust her free hand out firing off a blast of energy. She didn't expect it to be of any actual use in doing damage, it was only to be a distraction, so it came as a surprise to her when Jikoku dodged around it and it kept going straight, not turning toward his sword.

_"With the energy blade covering his black sword it can't absorb my attacks now, it seems."_ she thought, smiling. This opened up a whole new slew of options to her. She took to the air then, her sword was now far too long to wield effectively on the ground, she'd barely been able to handle it before she'd made it longer. Jikoku arced up to follow her but she cut a slash through the air sending a blade of energy surging down toward him and he veered away from it, confirming what she'd thought. She smiled more, pulled back her free hand, and began gathering a ball of red energy as she watched him charge her way again.

She raised her arm above her head and suddenly the baseball sized orb flared up to the size of a beach ball. "Flare Burst!" she yelled, bringing her arm down and firing the four foot wide ball of energy. Jikoku pulled back the arm holding the black sword and she smiled more as he swung at the energy blast to knock it aside. Energy blade met energy ball and the swirling ball of red ki erupted into an explosion nearly fifty feet in diameter. A second later there was a loud thud as Jikoku slammed into the ground. Her smile became a smirk as she saw what was left of the black sword. The explosion had shattered it clear down to hilt.

Diving toward the prone man Inferna pulled her sword arm back and then thrust it down. There was a loud screeching sound as the blade pierced the armor of his abdomen and he cried out in pain as she drove it down to the hilt before pulling it back out. The energy blade faded from his golden sword as a stream of yellow energy surged out of the newly created hole in his armor. As the light faded his cry of pain died off and he began to climb back to his feet.

"It has... been a long time..." he panted, holding a hand over the injury. "A very long time... since anyone... has done me injury... with such ease." He raised his golden sword and pointed it toward Inferna. "It would seem the... Four Galaxies have... once again... exceeded the First Stage."

"Once again exceeded the First Stage?" Inferna asked, floating twenty feet above him and keeping her own energy blade charged and at the ready. "What do you mean?"

Jikoku laughed. "It has happened before... in this universe." he said. "The ebb and flow of life... powers rise and fall... a never ending cycle... until the balance is disrupted." The man stumbled back a step and lowered his sword, leaning against the blade to support himself. "The stages... are the markers... on the road to... Armageddon." Jikoku took a deep breath then and straightened up some, pulling his sword back out of the ground, but still holding his injury. His breathing seemed back to normal and when he spoke it was with a stable voice again. "This universe has cycled as far as the Eighth Stage once, but always it has come back down. Eventually, it will not. It will exceed the stages."

"And then end as predicted on the walls inside?" asked Inferna.

Jikoku nodded as he moved his hand away from his injury. The hole remained in his armor but there was no trace of blood, and now the yellow energy coursing through the armor flowed over the hole as well. Inferna realized, then, that he had been stalling for time. Time to mend the damage to his body she had done. She wasn't overly concerned, though. She'd done it once, she could do it again.

"And the other Shitennou?" she asked. "They, too, can only be harmed if the universe has exceeded a certain stage?" She knew it was a foregone conclusion that there _were_ others, or there would have been no need to claim himself the first of them.

"Harmed with ease." he corrected, tossing aside the broken remains of his black sword. She was glad for that, it meant it truly was gone, though she was still concerned about what ability the golden one could have. "We are only from the first four stages, I the Second Stage, and our leader the Fourth Stage. I do not know what stage the universe is at now, it is something we check only after a battle has ended here. We come out only to battle, and do not concern ourselves with the Four Galaxies except after a fight has ended, to check on their progress."

_"Interesting."_ she thought, watching warily for any sign of him moving to resume their battle. _"Once this battle is over I'm going to have to explore this shrine in more depth, see if I can find out where and how they determine these 'stages' of the universe. The powers I encountered within the Empire... if this guy and I are only Second Stage..."_ Then she had a thought. Why wait to check herself, why not ask? "Where do each of these new 'stages' begin?" she asked. "How is it determined?"

"By power of the strongest." said Jikoku. "When an individual from the Four Galaxies exceeds a certain strength the next stage is entered. The strength for each stage is set by the Natural Order, by the damage that individual does to the universe merely by wielding their power."

"And you and I, we're Second Stage? Of how many?"

"Second of Thirteen." he replied. "The Fourteenth Stage is Armageddon."

_"Well, at least it's a big scale."_ she thought. Before she could ask anything else, however, he spoke up again.

"You are wondering what stage the universe is in now, I can tell." he said. "Which tells me you are not the strongest currently living in the Four Galaxies at the moment. But I cannot answer your question, and we have talked long enough. There is still a battle to finish." Inferna brought her sword back up as he charged up at her. His own energy blade did not reform, however, and she relaxed, allowing her own blade to fade. Keeping it up was starting to wear on her and she was grateful to let it go.

The two of them crossed swords again a second later, a shower of sparks raining out from the impact. The two arced through the air, swinging, slashing, and slicing as flashes of metal, sparks of energy, and ringing clangs filled the sky, their speed steadily increasing as they went. _"He's faster now that he's lost the other sword."_ she realized. _"Of course, I felt how heavy that thing was so it's no wonder it slowed him down."_ She ducked under another swipe from his sword and came up with her own again but his arm came up and he knocked it aside with a clang.

_"This is pointless."_ she thought, pulling away from him again. _"Neither of us can get through the other's armor with swords alone."_ She was tempted to drop Cold's, so that she could use both hands, but while his sword couldn't cut her armor it could still slice through her exposed areas of flesh. Having the blade in hand to parry his slashes brought her some degree of comfort. Besides, it could still be useful for attacking. Even if the blade alone wasn't enough to cut through his armor she could still charge it with ki again. But only for short periods. Maintaining the blade as she had before was a tiring endeavor.

_"I need to end this soon, though. I'm starting to tire but his energy hasn't dropped a bit. I felt it decline for a moment when I impaled him but it's back to full again. Whatever he is he seems to have an unlimited amount of energy."_ She brought her left arm up then and pointed her palm in his direction, turning sideways a little and bracing herself as the red energy gathered. "Flare Burst!" she cried, firing the attack. This time Jikoku didn't try and block or deflect it and instead darted out around it. As he came along beside it another blast of energy slammed into his chest driving him back and Inferna smirked. She'd fired a few smaller blasts right after the larger one, each one arcing out around it in a different direction to catch him when he dodged.

As he recoiled from the blast she closed her left hand and pulled her arm back toward her. Her Flare Burst slowed and then reversed in direction slamming into his back and exploding violently, propelling him forward. Then she launched in at him, drawing back her sword arm and channeling ki into and through the blade again. With a cry she brought her arm on an arcing downward swing and there was a piercing sound of metal tearing as the energy enhanced blade bit into Jikoku's armored shoulder.

Inferna gasped out in pain a second later, eyes going wide, as she felt his golden sword plunge into her abdomen. She pulled back away quickly, sliding back off of his sword. Reaching down she held a hand over the area of the injury but felt no gash in her armor. _"What?"_ she wondered, confused. _"How was he able to stab me through my armor without cutting it?"_ She blinked a few times to clear the tears that had formed from the pain. There was no denying she had been stabbed, at least two inches deep. But how? He'd not fed any energy into the sword this time, as she had done.

Without a gash in the armor to feed her ki through she couldn't cauterize the injury from the outside, so she started focusing on feeding energy through her body to the injury. Nothing overly vital had been hit but he'd sliced into some of her internal organs. Without some intervention she'd bleed to death. It was now time for _her_ to stall for time. "How...?"

"My obsidian sword wasn't the only one with unique properties." he said simply.

_"So, that's it."_ she thought. _"Come to think of it, I've never blocked that blade with anything but my own sword, save the one time it sliced through my armor blade, and that was the energy blade portion. So, that's the ability of that sword. Damn, and here I'd thought the black one was annoying. I can't block that sword with anything but my own or it'll slice right through me."_ She straightened up a little then as she felt the light burning sensation in her abdomen. She'd managed to gather enough ki around the area to begin cauterizing the damage.

That's when she noticed the arcing energy flowing through the gash she'd made in his shoulder armor. It looked like the energy that crackled around him at times, though smaller and more persistent. And as it flowed a glow began to cover the injury. _"Sealing it off, like he did with the one I put through his abdomen."_ she thought. _"It's like that armor is a part of him..."_ She blinked a few times then as a thought came to her. _"Who says it's not? My armor is a part of me. Granted, it's not so encompassing or fancy, but it's still armor. Same as Cold's and his sons. It would also explain why it changed when he transformed. So, we're both stalling to heal, then."_

She felt the burning subside and vanish about the same time she saw the arcing energy in his shoulder stop. Her knew realization had given her a few ideas but no real edge that she could see. Certainly nothing that helped to counter that golden sword of his. Though, perhaps... She smiled as she readied for the battle to resume. Jikoku waited for a moment until deciding she wasn't going to charge at him and then he surged in at her, golden blade arcing for her head. Inferna deflected it with her sword, kicked him in the chest, and then took a swipe at his head with her blade.

Jikoku ducked under it and then thrust his sword up at her legs but she twisted to the side so that it passed between her ankles. Grinning she slammed her feet together, trapping the blade between the armor around her shins, and then gave a hard twist and jerk to the side wrenching the sword from his grip. It was even lighter than Cold's, much lighter than the black one, and she gave it a hard swing. The blade had just started passing through his armor when he suddenly disappeared. It only took a second for her to lock onto his power behind her. _"So, it was teleportation before."_ she thought, turning to face him again.

In a burst of red she charged at him again. She had the advantage now and wasn't about to let up. Reaching him in just a few seconds she took a slash with Cold's sword first and he deflected it with an arm, then swerved around the swing she made with the golden sword. _"Not teleporting again?"_ she wondered as she made another swing with the gold sword that he just barely dodged. "Cold, catch!" she cried, tossing the Changeling's sword back his way. She didn't bother to wait and see if he did catch it, just switched the gold sword to her right arm where she could control it better, and then lunged in at Jikoku again.

As she neared she thrust out her left hand and fired off a series of energy blasts to distract him with. He dodged three, deflected two, and then vanished. She whirled quickly, she'd kept her focus on his energy this time, despite the way it made her feel, and had felt him appear just behind her. Her left arm came up and blocked his punch at the last second and then with a cry and a thrust she plunged the golden sword into his chest where, she assumed, his heart was. He left out a cry of pain, golden light shooting out from the entry point of the sword, a sudden shockwave blowing Inferna back thirty feet.

"And... so I fall..." Jikoku gasped, holding a hand over the injury to his chest as he floated down to the ground. "Be proud for... you are... only the sixth to... ever defeat me."

Inferna raised an eyebrow at that. "You've been killed before?"

Jikoku laughed again as his feet touched the ground and he collapsed to his knees. "And still... you refuse to accept... that others could have... come before you." he said. "I am a... servant of... Souzousha. Eternal. Everlasting. I do not go now... to death... but to slumber once more... until another comes... whom I must fight." The yellow sparks of energy around him had grown in number, frequency, and intensity as he spoke. Then yellow light began to flow from the openings in his helmet. There was a sudden flash of light and then a thundering explosion. When the glare and dust faded all that remained were a few shards of clear yellow crystal, a scorch mark on the ground where he'd knelt, and a floating ball of yellow light.

The light pulsed and then suddenly surged off toward the shrine. Up the stairs, through the door, and out of sight in less than second. Inferna looked down at her hand and saw that the golden sword had vanished as well. A glance around the battle field showed that the remains of the black sword, too, had gone. Letting out a long sigh she relaxed and began to shrink and change as she reverted to her first form again. "An interesting battle, to say the least." she said, massaging a cramp out of her neck and shoulder.

"Indeed." Cold said, walking over to her. "Though your conversations with him have opened up new questions."

She nodded. "I still want to know if this world is Nigiro, not to mention find out about those heroes he referenced, and that sleeping 'it' too. Though these 'Stages of Armageddon' are what really have me interested."

"Me as well." he said. "Based on the writing on the walls I had already assumed that the end the natives had foreseen would be occurring within the next few centuries or so, if not a few decades. If we can figure out where the universe is at in these stages..."

"Well, we wont find anything out here." she said. "I say it's time to leave your Guard in charge of the main group and take a few with us to explore deeper into this shrine."

"Yes. It would seem we have some time until the next of these Shitennou appears to trouble us. And it is likely we'll get the same kind of warning that he's coming as we did with this one."

"The light." Inferna said, nodding, as she started toward the shrine again. "We watch for that and we can have everyone out of the way before the trouble starts."

XXX

Yellow light surged down through the opening in the ceiling and then arced toward the large clear crystal in the center of the chamber. It hit a second later and flowed easily inside. The light faded some, then, but left a faint glow filling the room. For a time only the faint yellow light could be seen but, slowly, the crystal in the south wall began to glow adding its own blue light to the room.

XXX

"So, I did a little reading up on Xentron." Videl said, entering the dinning room. "The computers on this ship have a lot of data on the Empire and the fringe and free worlds that exist. We're going to have to be really careful when we get there."

"How come?" Bra asked from where she stood at the stove making pancakes. Pan was already at the table eating her way through a stack of thirty.

"It's very anti-Empire." Videl answered as she took a seat at the table and Bra brought her over a small plate of food. Unlike 17 and 18 she still needed to breathe, eat, and drink. Just not as much as a normal person. "There are several cases of Imperial soldiers being mobbed and killed just for showing up on the planet."

"And no one's been sent to deal with it?" Bra asked, surprised.

"They don't bother the Empire." said Videl. "The Empire doesn't care about them very much, especially since they don't have anything of any value, so it's rare that any soldiers go there. Apparently it was a barren wasteland until groups began gathering there to get away from the Empire and it has grown now into a rather busy and populated free world with a lot of black market activity. It's a known haven for pirates and such as well, but no Resistance factions. Xentron tolerates them almost as little as it tolerates Imperial soldiers. Lack of resources and lack of active interference in the Empire are how it stays independent. I doubt there's anyone there who could actually hurt any of us but... I'd rather not press our luck. Besides, things will go a lot smoother for us if they think we're just another random group of visitors."

Bra shrugged. "Maybe. But we're not with the Empire anymore. I don't think we'd have much to worry about anyway."

"You know, I'd thought I'd recognized the name." Pan said as she finished off her stack of pancakes. "17 told me about it. He'd been tracking a defector with important knowledge and followed them to Xentron, probably how he knows enough about the planet to decide to go there. Anyway, he never managed to recapture the person."

"Escaped?" asked Bra.

"No, beaten to death by the natives." said Pan, frowning. "Apparently they found out he used to be with the Empire and had left, so they attacked him."

"What? But... that doesn't make any sense..." Bra said, joining the two of them at the table with her own plate of pancakes. "Why would they attack someone who's not with the Empire anymore?"

"For the same basic reason they attack those who are." 17 said, entering the room. "Imperial soldiers aren't welcome because they all have ill feelings toward the Empire. Former Imperial soldiers aren't welcome because they could bring the Empire to Xentron, searching for them. Just like it brought me there for the defector Pan mentioned." 17 shrugged. "They'll tolerate visits from Resistance members more than vists from Imperials or former Imperials. Though Resistance members can overstay their welcome pretty easily, too. They want to avoid any and all association with anything that could make the Empire take an interest in them."

"Is it really ok for us to go there, then?" Pan asked.

"Shouldn't be an issue." said 17. "We'll just have to disguise ourselves so we're not recognized. Chances are good Vegeta and the others wont send anyone out here to look for us because of the volatile nature of the planet's population. It's why I picked Xentron. If they _do_ want to check the planet for us one of _them_ would have to come out and do it personally. Oh, and you two will have to be extra careful." he said, turning his gaze to look at both Pan and Bra.

"Us?" asked Bra. "Why?"

"When I was here four years ago looking for that defector I never landed on the planet. I spoke via transmission to one of the world leaders, if you can really call them that. I figured I'd get more cooperation if I extended them the courtesy of being diplomatic and showed I had no interest in them. I was right, they sent me the guy's body without even the slightest fuss, and apologized that he was already dead, even. Anyway, while I never went to the surface I was close enough to the planet to get some power readings. There were at least a dozen powers over the ten million mark."

"What!" Pan asked, shocked. There were a few non Masters in the Empire who broke the million mark, but not many, and the only non Master that Pan had ever heard of that broke the ten million mark was Slug.

17 nodded. "I never reported it because..." he shrugged. "I doubt Vegeta would have really cared, anyway, but no reason to run the risk when there was no credible threat from the powers. Anyway, I don't know who they were or why they were on the planet so it's possible they could still be down there. Which is why I want you two to be careful. Oh, and also, keep yourselves suppressed while we're there. Somewhere in ten thousand range would be best, I think. High powers are fairly common there, but not from people so young. Don't want to draw attention to ourselves."


	38. Activation

A/N: This will be the last update for an unknown amount of time as I will shortly be losing access to the net indefinitely.

_Chapter Thirty-eight - Activation_

Everyone knew at this point that 18 had defected. It was kind of hard to miss something like that when she came to the planet to try and kill the Sai-jin King, and effective head of the Empire. Especially not when doing nearly fifty thousand credits worth of damage to the palace in the process. In the three days since the attack the repairs to the palace had only just begun. The work crews were still busy building their scaffoldings before even starting on the repairs themselves. Meanwhile everyone was busy speculating and gossiping about what had happened. Not just about 18's attack on Saiya but the reasons for it.

The events at Gorneo were not known to the general public. Not in full detail, at least. They knew that the world had been attacked, but no more. They didn't even know that Trunks was dead yet. The current story was that Trunks was out in pursuit of those who had attacked the planet. They'd leave that in place for now and then release a story that he'd been killed in some fashion, likely a ship malfunction. Anything that prevented word getting out that 18 had done it so as to prevent any Resistance groups from trying to rally around her. Of course, those in the palace had overheard the conversation between two groups so they realized they didn't have all of the facts.

None of them would say anything about it in the open, of course, but Vegeta had heard all of the talk just the same. They were also talking about the fact that Pan and Bra had been with 18 as well. Some were suggesting that it was the Cyborgs that had joined the two Hybrids, that the whole thing was a coup by the two girls to take over the Empire. Others felt that Pan and Bra were with 18 as spies for the Masters. There were also some who thought the whole thing a secret Imperial operation to locate and eliminate various resistance forces across the universe, by making it look like several Masters had defected. But there were those who had guessed correctly, that they had all defected.

The fact that no official statement had been released about any of it made them talk as well. No statement about 18 or 17 defecting, no statement about the Hybrids defecting, no orders for pursing or tracking them. At least, none that the general public had heard of. But orders had been given and Vegeta was currently making his way through the halls at the head of a small group.

The three behind him, all Sai-jins, were the volunteers for the Mind Digitization process. Zukkin had been his first choice and the first of the three he'd spoken with. The man was currently the commander of the Ninth Division's Tenth Strike Team. The rank was fairly low, but that was due entirely to power. Vegeta had full confidence in his abilities and his skill, his strike team had pulled off victories where even higher ranked and stronger teams had failed. And his command ability, most of all, was second to none.

Zukkin had obtained his command post because he'd seized control of all Imperial forces on the world of Kaput when riots there had broken out into revolution. The man had given orders to soldiers many times stronger than him, ones that would normally have been his superiors in the chain of command, and they'd been followed without question. No one in the Empire doubted that it was Zukkin's leadership skills that had enabled the small number of remaining low level and injured Imperial forces to put down the revolution and restore order to Kaput. So Vegeta could think of no one better for this assignment, and Zukkin had been more than willing to agree, even before Vegeta mentioned that successful completion of the mission could result in instatement as a Master to help bolster their ranks back up.

It was that opportunity of becoming a Master that had convinced Tamayto to agree to procedure and mission. Tamayto was a palace guard and _hadn't_ been one of Vegeta's first choices. He hadn't even been fifth or sixth. He had the skill, certainly, but there were a few... faults to the man that made him a... less than perfect soldier. One of said faults was currently pressed against his lips. Most Sai-jins drank on occasion as a means of relaxing. Tamayto was the only one Vegeta knew of who would drink while on a mission, often even in the midst of battle. It didn't seem to impede his performance but, as he was almost never completely sober, it was impossible to be sure. The other main fault that had pushed him down on Vegeta's list was his ambition. Ambition was a good thing in moderation, but he had it in excess. Hence the instant change of heart and agreement to the procedure as soon as the promise of Master status had been made.

The third man was Kumber, another member of the palace guard. He'd not been on Vegeta's list of choices at all, he'd been recommended by Zukkin. The man didn't seem to have much to say, all of his responses to Vegeta had been through head nods, but Vegeta had agreed with Zukkin's assessment of him after going over his military record file. He'd been on Kaput as well during the revolution. There was nothing in the file that made him stand out, exactly, but his name was attached to every single one of the biggest operations on the world that had succeeded. Both before and after the local government had collapsed. His record before and after Kaput was the same. Nothing that made him stand out but not a single blemish to be found, and his name was linked to a lot of big missions, all of which had succeeded spectacularly.

As Vegeta entered the lab that Gero had told him to bring the volunteers to he looked around for the scientist and spotted him along the wall to the right at one of the terminals. The lab was one of the smaller ones Gero had, only about twenty foot by twenty foot by ten, and most of that space was taken up by three chairs, a large computer mainframe, and three metal caskets. "Are you ready?" Vegeta asked as the door closed behind Kumber.

Gero glanced back from his monitor and gave each of the volunteers a quick glance before responding. "Just about." he said. "I've been having a little trouble allocating enough processing power and RAM to run the systems. I'm still trying to track down the cause." He turned back to the monitor again and frowned. "I've never seen usage levels this high before."

"The entire palace does run off of the one mainframe." Vegeta said as he approached the doctor. He didn't know much about computers but he knew enough to get by on. "There's several hundred thousand different terminals all through the building. It's probably just a busy day."

"No." said Gero. "I've _seen_ busy days on the system. CPU usage has never gone above thirty percent, RAM usage never above twenty percent, even on the busiest of them. Currently CPU usage is at ninety seven percent and RAM usage at ninety six percent. This is well beyond normal usage."

"Could it be a problem?" asked Vegeta, now concerned. The central computer mainframe of the palace ran... just about everything. And it was the central hub for the entire Galactic Network.

"Possible, but I doubt it." said Gero. "At least, not a _natural_ problem. It could be some sort of virus. Or our hacker is back and not being as subtle as usual." Gero had noted several hacks to the palace mainframe, and determined hacks to other connected systems and his own computers, a few weeks before. He couldn't tell what information had been taken, if any, and hadn't been able to trace the intrusion. Whoever it was was exceptionally skilled. He'd set up a few new precautions since discovering the hacks, but he'd noted new intrusions to the system had occurred in the last few days, all of them circumventing his new defenses and still just as untraceable as before.

"What's this?" Gero wondered as a flashing notice appeared on the screen. "An Omega Level access restriction?"

"Omega Level?" Vegeta asked, furrowing his brow. "I've never heard of Omega Level access."

"It's the top level, in a sense." said Gero. "All Masters have Galactic Level access, the official top level. Bulma, however, also coded in Omega Level access to the system. Its data access level is actually three ranks lower than Galactic but its priority level is the highest, overriding even Galactic Priority processes. And anything coded Omega Level can only be accessed from an Omega Level user. As far as I know she's the only one with the Omega Level access codes."

"I hadn't known she'd done that."

The doctor shrugged. "It's her system. She designed the entire thing from the ground up, it's not surprising she gave herself priority system access. I would have done the same in her place. Still, I wonder what she's doing to use up so much power?" Gero quickly ran through a few more commands. While he couldn't directly access whatever it was that Bulma was using the system for he could trace back all of the CPU and RAM allocation requests to their source programs. At the very least he could determine what she had running and then try to infer a purpose from that.

"Hmm. Interesting, the Virtual Universe Simulator is running at full capacity, multiple instances. She's also got a massive data compile running in the quantum string network, and it seems... the numbers system is crunching something big as well. And this is... ah, looks like the system is also sending out a few thousand sensor requests, to every sensor system in the Empire, every twenty seconds, and compiling massive amounts of data readings... some of which are being fed to a few of the VUS instances that are running."

"What, exactly, does all of that mean?" Vegeta asked, scowling. He was rather irritated with Bulma currently as it was, this certainly wasn't helping matters any.

"My guess is that she's hit some major breakthrough with those equations of hers, or thinks she's close to one at the least, so she's running the entire thing through the system at maximum priority and spec to formalize and finalize her model." He typed a few more commands in and the monitor blanked for a moment and then Bulma's face appeared on screen.

"Oh, Dr. Gero, what's up?" she asked.

"I wanted to ask you if you could free up some more computer power." the doctor said. "I need at least twenty percent of the CPU and fifteen percent of the RAM in order to perform a few operations down here."

"Ah. Sure, I can free up some space." she replied. "Hang on." She went off screen for a moment. "There you go." she said, coming back. "I took my stuff down a few levels, that should give you plenty of power. Just let me know when you're done so I can put it back up again. I want to finish as quickly as possible and even at full power it'll be weeks, if not months, until it's fully done."

Gero nodded. "Not a problem." he said, closing the connection and brining up his control screen again. "Ah, excellent, she's given me more than enough resources to work with. Alright then." He entered a couple of quick commands and then turned to face the three volunteers. "Just to go over matters with all of you one more time." he began, walking toward them. They all still stood near the door, where Vegeta had left them upon entering the room. "This process will transfer your minds from your organic bodies into the mechanical ones I've constructed. This process will leave your original minds fully blank, you will be effectively brain dead.

"Note, also, that the process is not perfect. The transfer will not be one hundred percent. You will still be, largely, you. Most of your memories and personality will remain intact but there will be variances, changes, and possibly a few memory lapses. There are also a few basic lines of command coded into the computer brains that will imprint into your own minds during transfer. Mostly operational data but a few command directives as well. With power on this scale safety measures are always must. I just want to be clear that you all understand this and are fine with it before we begin." All three of them nodded. "Alright then. Zukkin, if you could take the chair on the left. Kumber, the chair in the middle. Tamayto, the chair on the right, please."

The three Sai-jins did as instructed and soon Gero had them strapped down and secured in place and then he lowered large helmet like devices down over their eyes. He'd gone over each of their records after Vegeta had listed them as the volunteers in order to best determine which one to transfer into which body. Physical size of their original bodies, their own current power levels, and their fighting styles had all been taken into consideration, after which he'd made the final adjustments to the Android bodies they would be transferring into. That was also when he'd installed the infinite energy generators into the units, as well as the vocal simulators which were designed to give the machines the same voices as their originals, based off recorded data from their mission files.

With the three Sai-jins secure Gero moved back over to his terminal and brought up the command control program. "The process shouldn't be too painful but it will be uncomfortable. Try not to move and _please_ try not to break the equipment." he instructed. Breaking the equipment wouldn't be an issue for Zukkin, his power level was only just over thirty thousand. Tamayto was at just short of a hundred and seventy thousand and Kumber was at almost three hundred thousand. The two of them both exceeded the strength tolerances of his equipment and if they broke something, or moved too much, the transfer could fail. "Beginning transfer... now."

A loud whine started from the machine the three Sai-jins were hooked up to, and then a blue glow came out from under the helmets as the three of them suddenly jerked and tensed. They managed to relax a moment later and Gero kept his eyes on the screen as it showed the transfer rates and progress bars as their minds were scanned, copied, converted into digital binary data, and then downloaded into the computer brains he'd built and installed inside the Android shells. "Transfer process is proceeding smoothly." he said, scanning over the data. "Transfer completion estimated to occur in ten minutes."

"How long after that before they're up and working?" Vegeta asked.

"Once the transfer is complete I'll just have to boot up their systems and cores." replied Gero. "Activation will only take sixty seconds. Barring any unexpected complications they'll be fully operational then."

The Sai-jin nodded. "Good. The others are still on route to Xentron?"

"They are." said Gero. "The three of them will be able to trace the nano-bots in Videl's system, so if they change course after today it wont matter. The main issue, I think, is travel time. They seized one of your ships when they left, after all. The newest and fastest one, if I'm not mistaken."

Vegeta nodded. Bra had no doubt made sure they went for the fastest ship. "We don't currently have anything else quite as fast as it." he agreed. "Not that it matters too much. I've already assigned the three of them one of my other ships to use. Not quite as fast, but close enough. So long as 17 and 18 remain on Xentron for more than four days they'll still be there when these three arrive. If not, they'll be able to redirect to follow them. And... if they run into each other in space..."

Gero nodded. The destruction of the stolen ship would result in the deaths of Pan, Bra, and Videl. An unwelcome outcome but one the three Sai-jins had already accepted as a possibility. Of course, 17 and 18 would be fully able to survive and function in the vacuum of space, but so would these three. The destruction of the ships would be irrelevant in the outcome of the battle. If it came down to it they'd just fight each other in the dead of space. The two remained silent as the process completed and Gero checked over the log. Everything checked out so he sent the activation codes through.

Just over a minute later the metal casket in the middle moved, the door moving up and then falling to the side, open. A single large arm was all they could see for a moment, and then the occupant of the casket sat up. He was a large man with gray skin and long black hair in a braided ponytail. As he climbed to his feet the right hand casket lid moved up a little, dropped back down, then was thrust open with a loud bang. The small purple skinned occupant floated up in the air then moved from his horizontal position into a vertical one and smirked. A moment later the left hand casket creaked as the door to it was pushed open and the third and final one emerged and climbed to his feet as he pulled a ball cap down onto his white haired head.

"This is different." the purple one said, looking at his hands. "Very cool, very cool." He blinked a few times as he gazed around the room until his eyes locked onto Vegeta. "Whoa. Check it out. Look at all of that data. Power reading, height, weight, age, even face recognition. I could get used to this."

"Nice to see you like the new you." Gero said, grinning, and then he turned to face Vegeta. "Allow me to introduce you to the fruits of Project Hunter. Androids 13, 14, and 15."

Vegeta nodded as he looked them over. They were an... interesting bunch by appearance. "Everything checks out?" he asked. The three nodded. "Good. There's a ship already waiting for you in the hangar bay. You know the mission. Locate and eliminate 17 and 18."

"What about the others?" asked 13. "Mistress Pan, Mistress Bra, and Mistress Videl?"

XXX

The three of them were making their way through the palace for the hangar bays and their ship, 13 and 14 in the lead. 15 was walking behind them, hands in the pockets of his light yellow-green coat, a frown on his face, eyes watching the stone floor of the hall and his feet as he made his way along. They were nearly to the hangar when he finally made up his mind. "Hang on guys." he said, looking up again and coming to a stop.

"What is it?" 13 asked, looking back over his shoulder at his smaller companion.

"I need to make a quick trip back up to my quarters." he said.

"We don't have time for detours." said 13. "17 and 18 already have a head start and they've got a faster ship. I would prefer not to have to chase them all across the galaxy, or the universe."

"I know, I know." 15 said, pulling a hand out of his pocket and waving him off. "But there's some stuff I need to get. I wont be more than thirty minutes." He turned around and started back the way they'd come.

"Fine." 13 replied, turning back toward the direction of the hangar bay. "But I'm only giving you thirty minutes. If you're not back by then we're taking off without you. You'll just have to catch up."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever."

XXX

"Ship secure, sir." a soldier called from his console. "All stations are reporting green. We are outside of planetary sensor range. No ships in the area."

"Good. I hate having to be so subtle but I'd rather not draw attention to ourselves." said one of the two men standing in the center of the command bridge. "The natives wouldn't be overly thrilled to see us and I doubt we'd get the red carpet treatment. Unless they're painting it red with our blood."

"Probably why he came here." said the other.

"Yes. It makes a good place to avoid Imperial soldiers and makes things annoying for us. Even we're no match for a few of the natives."

"I suggest we recommend the entire planet be destroyed after we leave."

The first grinned. "Indeed. It would make the universe a far better place." he agreed. "Though I doubt it would be approved otherwise they would have destroyed the place a long time ago. Well, let's get moving. Getting to the planet from here by pod will still take us five hours."

The second nodded and the two large men turned and made their way off the bridge. Five minutes later they were climbing into their pods and readying for launch. Both would have much rather taken their command ship down to the surface, but hiding a ship full of Imperial soldiers would be no easy task. It was far easier for them to simply leave their battle armors behind, don civilian clothes, and land by pod somewhere in the desert. The pods could then be sent back to the ship until they needed them again. No ships to hide meant no ships to find and give away their presence to the natives.

A moment later they'd launched and were hurtling through space toward the distant planet. "I know it's a long shot." began the second over the ComLink between pods. "But we wouldn't happen to have any contacts out here, would we? That would make things much easier."

"It would but we don't." replied the first. "The only contact we had out here got themselves killed nearly eight years ago, now. We're completely and utterly on our own."

"Damn. And we can't even wear our scouters in public. How the hell are we supposed to find two people on an entire planet?"

"With any luck the one who sent the message will still be on the planet and able to find us and lead us to them. Otherwise we'll just have to scout around in the main city for some sign of them. The Namek will stick out pretty well, if he's still with the Human. If it comes down to it we can approach one of the Bosses and present our case to them. I'm sure they'd see the appeal of helping us over forcing one of the Masters to come here personally. I just can't guarantee they wouldn't send us _all_ back in body bags or I'd just do that from the start."

His partner snorted. "There was a time when being a Super Elite in charge of an Imperial Strike Force got you some respect from these backwater planets. The Masters are getting too lax in their rule."

"Nah, it's not the Masters, just the Sai-jins." said the other. "Why do you think I put in that transfer request to work for Frieza six years ago?"

"Hah. You say that now but I know the only reason you did it was because you thought that slave girl you saw on his ship was hot and you wanted access to her."

"One of the perks of the job." he agreed.

XXX

"Today's status report has arrived, Captain." a young woman said as she walked onto the bridge carrying a small computer and reading the information on the screen.

"Bah, status reports." the Captain sneered. "I don't need a report to know what the state of my ship is. We're still _dead_ in the middle of fucking _nowhere._ That's our status, just like it's been for the last month." he growled. His good mood at watching the 'hitch hikers' get sucked out into space hadn't lasted more than a few days. By the time they'd finally gotten their distress call through to Saiya he'd been irritated again. The response from Saiya hadn't improved his mood any, either. A month and a half wait for their rescue ship! They still had nearly two weeks to go before it arrived and he'd already put five crewmen into Regen Tanks because of his foul mood.

"Actually, there is some good news." the woman said.

The Captain turned from the monitor he'd been using to watch an old movie on and raised an eyebrow. "Good news? Well then, let's here it. I could use some good news for once."

She nodded. "Yes, sir. It seems that the repairs to the air purification systems are complete now and the air circulation systems are running again."

"No more recycled air?" the Captain asked happily. The air on the bridge had been stale for weeks because they'd been breathing it ever since the attack. The air recyclers could keep air breathable for months, if needed, but it always got a foul odor after a few days. If the circulation system and purification systems were running again they could decapsulate fresh air into the system and eject the stale stuff into space.

"Exactly, sir." the soldier replied. "Maintenance has scheduled a full ship atmosphere purge and restock to occur in just under two hours."

"About damn time!" the Captain cheered. "Alright, so, what else have you got for me?"

"Primary power is almost back to full." she said. "We've managed to restore air to all areas of the ship, the hull breach is fully secured with no leaks now, and gravity is stable in all areas. There are still some burnt out power circuits in the holds that we can't repair, however."

The Captain waved it off. "There's nothing down there that needs power from us. I don't care if whatever they had frozen down there goes bad." he said. "We'll replace the circuits when we get back to Saiya. How are we doing on fuel?"

"At current output we're good for another four months." she said. "We are starting to run low on rations, apparently a few boxes are missing. Likely they're what our attackers were after. Still, as long as the rescue ship isn't delayed too much it wont be a problem. We just have to cut everyone's intake by two percent."

The Captain nodded. "Send the notice out when you leave." he said. He didn't like the idea of depriving any of his crew of food. They were all Sai-jins and food depravation on a ship could often lead to... problems. But smaller portions were preferable to going even a day without any food at all. "Anything else, Luttece?"

"Sensor systems should be back on-line by the end of the day." she said. "But engineering reports a total loss on propulsion. We'll have to be towed back to Saiya and have the entire thing replaced."

"Replaced!"

"Yes, sir." she said, nodding, but also taking a half step back. The five soldiers who'd spent time in the Regen Tanks over the last month had all been delivering status reports with bad news in them. She wasn't about to take any chances. "I asked about a refit instead but they say the entire thing is fused, there's nothing to refit. It all needs removed and replaced. Completely non-salvageable."

"Damn it!" he cried, smacking a fist against the arm of his chair. A full replacement of the propulsion system meant replacing the entirety of the engines as well. A refit would have been expensive enough and it would only have been ten percent as costly as a full replacement. "What about more _good_ news?" he demanded.

She quickly scanned through the data looking for something else good, something to improve his mood again. "Full ComNet functionality is back." she said. "Transfer rates are still a little slow, lag time is about three seconds, but we've got total ComNet access again."

"Well, that's something at least."

"Um, sir... There is... one more thing..." He turned to look at her again and scowled but she pressed on, she couldn't _not_ tell him. This was probably the worst bit of news she could give him, considering all the monetary losses incurred so far and the repair costs. Better to get it over with quickly. "Sir, we received a transmission from Saiya about an hour ago, from our client. They are... holding you personally responsible for the loss of the cargo they'd ordered. They're... billing us for the full cost of..."

"How much?" he interupted.

"Five mill..."

"DAMN IT!" he cried, slamming his fist against the arm of the chair again and shattering it this time. As he lifted his hand up from the ruined arm he scowled at it, flexing the fingers slowly. Suddenly there was a burst of white light in his hand, his arm snapped out, and then there was a small explosion and a loud crack as the energy blast he'd formed and launched hit the soldier and knocked her back into the wall where she slumped to the ground unconscious. As the other crewmen on the bridge rushed over to check on her the control panel screen of the cryostasis chamber in the cargo hold flashed and the message it had been displaying changed.

*ATTENTION*

*BACKUP POWER SYSTEMS NEARLY DEPLETED*

*BACKUP POWER REAMING - 10 HOURS*

*AUTO THAW SYSTEMS ENGAGED - FULL THAW ESTIMATED TO OCCUR IN 5 HOURS*


	39. Awakening

A/N: If you read the note in HaH chapter 55 you can skip this, it's the same thing. For the rest of you: My apologies for the long delay. I'll save you the long winded explanation and give you the short version: Real Life got fucked up an fucked shit up. As of now, internet access is limited, time to write is limited, and actually uploading something is a pain. So, expect updates to be slow and sporadic for a while. But, on the good side, at least we're back in action~

_Chapter Thirty-nine - Awakening_

"Any idea what's in this thing?" one of the maintenance crew working in the cargo hold asked as she tried to look through the view port of the cryostasis chamber. The frosted window on the front of it had water streaks running down on the inside but it was still too icy to see through.

"No clue, Spina." said Kabage. "They never let any of us in down here."

"Well, we'll find out soon enough." said Spina as she looked at the control panel's screen and saw it read only 20 minutes left until estimated Auto Thaw completion. Inside, however, the occupant was already showing signs of stirring. A muscle was twitching in his jaw and his eyes were moving, darting around wildly and randomly. The thaw had completed enough that he'd entered REM sleep.

"I'm betting it's something of Doctor Gero's." said Rycel. "Probably some new experiment they were testing out on Geozan 7 that malfunctioned."

"Don't even joke about that." Spina said as she backed away from the chamber.

"Come on, back to work!" Inikuzu called from across the hold. "We need to finish by-passing all of the fried power circuits so we quit feeding power to them and wasting it."

XXX

A face was floating in the darkness. Wild black hair and a scar on his cheek.

_Kakkarotto_

"...Paragus!"

_Dead_

"How can you still stand up for him? You know when they find him Kakkarotto's as good as dead!"

_Warn_

"Maybe, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it, not before. No one but me even knows what direction he was launched in, let alone what world he went to."

_Kill_

"Well I don't have that luxury."

_All_

"Paragus! Listen to me! This could be a chance to sa..."

_Kakkarotto_

The floating face faded away into the darkness and a rocky and barren landscape took shape. Dark clouds swirled overhead and rain beat down over everything. "Father! Father!" a young boy cried, running over to a man laying on the ground, dark red blood mixing in with the mud around him.

_Dead_

"Brolly..." the man said weakly. "You did... good. But now you... have to go."

_Warn_

"No! I can't... I can't leave you!"

_Kill_

"You have to... have to go... son. Vegeta will... will find us... soon. You're no... match for the... the Prince yet." He coughed and brought up blood. Closing his eyes he fought to bring his breathing back under control. "Brolly, listen... to me. Find Bardock... He's still... still out there some... somewhere. Near that... temple we saw." He coughed again and more blood coated his beard. "Tell him... what's happened. He'll... protect you..."

_All_

"But... what about you?"

_Kakkarotto_

"I'm not... going to... to last... much longer." he replied weakly. "Even a... a light tap from a... Super Sai-jin is... is more than I can... survive."

_Dead_

"No! You... you can't die! You can't!"

_Warn_

"Brolly! Stop that!" Paragus cried with more strength than he'd thought he had left. "You are... a Sai-jin. Stop... crying. Crying is a... is a sign of... weakness."

_Kill_

The boy reached up and wiped the tears away. "Yes father." he said softly.

_All_

"Now... go. Go before... Vegeta finds... us. You must... must survive. You must... live. Become stronger... and then... then you can... fight him... again. Make him... see... rea...son."

_Kakkarotto_

"I... I can't..."

_Dead_

"Go!" Paragus ordered. "You... must... go... now!"

_Warn_

The boy stood slowly, sniffling back tears, then turned toward where he knew the temple was. He could still see the strange light reaching up into the sky. The light that had caused this storm. He closed his eyes and started running.

_Kill_

"I'll stop them!" he yelled back to his father. "I promise!"

_All_

He tripped over a rock and started to fall but quickly caught himself and floated, only a few inches above the ground. He was flying. He was finally flying. The one skill his father had tried to teach him that he'd never been able to do. Panting he turned his eyes toward the light and the sadness on his face vanished. He was alone but he wasn't alone, he still had his father's words, his father's orders, his father's faith. He was a Sai-jin, he could do this. Determination filled his eyes and he took off at full speed for the light, for the temple, for Bardock.

_Kakkarotto. Dead. Warn. Kill. All. Warn. Dead. All. Kill. Kakkarotto. All. Kill. Kakkarotto. Dead. Warn. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill._

He landed, panting, hands on his knees. He'd never moved so fast in his entire life. He'd transformed along the way, put every drop of power he had into his flight. He knew that everything rested on him doing what his father told him. Somehow, if he did it all, if he did what his father wanted, then everything would be ok again. But now that he was at the temple he couldn't see Bardock anywhere. Had his father been wrong? Had the other Sai-jin already left? "Bardock!" he yelled, running and stumbling toward the steps. "Bardock!"

_Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. _

Reaching the steps he tripped and stumbled. This time he wasn't able to catch himself and he banged his head against the edge of the stone steps. Blinking past the pain and tears and his now blurry vision he pushed himself back up to his feet. He felt something warm on his forehead and reached up. Bringing his hand back down he found it was red. Blood. He wiped his hand off on his pants and started up the steps again. "Bardock!" he cried. "Where are you!"

_Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. _

"Brolly?" a voice asked from behind him. The boy stopped his climbing and turned and then grinned. He was still here, he just wasn't inside! "Brolly, what's wrong? Where's Paragus?"

_Warn. Warn. Warn. Warn. Warn. Warn. Warn. Warn. Warn._

Brolly fought to stop himself from crying again, repeating over and over in his mind that he was a Sai-jin, that crying was a weakness, that Sai-jins aren't weak. "He saved me." he said. "But he... he..." Shaking his head to clear it he started over. "Prince Vegeta's here! He said that Cooler's here too! Dad told me to come to you and you'd protect me. He said I... I have to get stronger so I can... I can fight Vegeta again later. Make him listen."

_Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. _

Bardock's eyes widened. "Here? Now? Already? Damn it! I thought we still had more time! I've not gotten everything yet!" He turned his gaze up toward the temple again and scowled. "Shit! Brolly, I need you to do something for me."

_All. All. All. All. All. All. All. All. All. All. All. All. All. All. All. All. All. All. All. All. All._

"Huh? Do something...?"

_Kakkarotto. Kill. Dead. All. Kill. All. Kakkarotto. _

Bardock nodded. "I've got everything I've taken from inside stored in my pod." he said. "It's all hidden in a special compartment. I need you to take the pod to where my son is. Take everything I've gotten to him. It'll be up to the both of you, then, to pick up where your father and I left off. We can't let Cooler have what he's after, it'll be the end of the Sai-jin race if that happens. If... if I fail here then it'll be up to you and Kakkarotto to stop Cooler, alright? Can you do that?"

_Kill. Dead. Kill. All. Warn. Kill. Dead. All. Kill. Dead. Kill. All. Kakkarotto. Warn. Kakkarotto. All. Dead. Kakkarotto. Kill. All. Dead. All. Kill. All. Warn. All. Kakkarotto. All. Dead. Dead. Dead. Warn. Dead. Dead. Warn. Dead. Kill. Kakkarotto. Dead. Warn. Kill. All. All. Dead. Kakkarotto. Warn. Dead. Kill. Kakkarotto. Dead. Warn. Kill. Kakkarotto. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. _

"Of course! I'm a Sai-jin, I can do anything!"

_Warn. Kill. Kakkarotto. Warn. Kill. Kakkarotto. Warn. Kill. Kakkarotto. Warn. Kill. Warn. Kill. Warn. Kill. Kakkarotto. Warn. Kill. Kakkarotto. Warn. Kill. Warn. Kill. Kakkarotto. Kill. Kakkarotto. Kill. Kakkarotto. Kill. Kakkarotto. Kill. Kakkarotto. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Warn. Kill. Kakkarotto. Kill. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. _

Bardock grinned. "You're Paragus's son alright, kid. Come on, we don't have much time. My pod isn't far."

_Kill. Kakkarotto. Kill. Dead. Kakkarotto. Kill. Kakkarotto. Kill. Kakkarotto. Dead. Kill. Kakkarotto. Kill. Kakkarotto. Kill. Kakkarotto. Kill. Kakkarotto. Dead. Kill. Kakkarotto. Kill. Kakkarotto. Kill. Dead. Kakkarotto. Kill. Kakkarotto. Kill. Kakkarotto. Kill. Kakkarotto. Kill. Kakkarotto. Dead. Kill. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kill. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kill. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kill. Kill. Kakkarotto. Kill. Kill. Kakkarotto. Kill. Kill. Kakkarotto. _

Brolly nodded and quickly followed after the older Sai-jin. He stayed quiet the entire time as Bardock programmed the pod and then recorded a message. "Use the hibernation gas." he said as Brolly climbed into the pod. "It's a really long trip to there from here, especially by space pod like this. You'll... well, you'll be bigger when you get there." Brolly swallowed and nodded.

_Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. _

"Be careful kid." Bardock said as he closed the pod door. "And good luck. We're both going to need it."

_Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. Kakkarotto. _

XXX

*AUTO THAW COMPLETE*

"Wha-what is that?" Yamm asked, pulling his head out of the hull where he'd been working. He tilted his head a little to try and hear better.

"What's what?" Artachok asked as he looked at the data on his computer.

"That... sound."

Artachok tilted his head a little and listened as well. "I don't hear any sounds." he said.

"Yeah, I don't hear it now either but... I could have sworn I heard a laugh or something."

Artachok frowned at him. "Laughing? Down here? With all of us being worked so hard lately? If you heard any laughter it was all in your head."

"Yeah... maybe..." he said, slipping his head back into the hull through the opening they'd made by removing one of the cover panels. As soon as his head was back inside the hull, however, he heard it again. "Hey, hey!" he cried, pulling his head back out. "I was right! I was!"

"What are you rambling about?"

"Listen! Stick your head in there and listen!"

Artachok scowled for a moment and then sighed as he stuck his head into the hull. "Wha-what the hell!" he cried, pulling his head back out. There was definitely laughter echoing around inside the wiring conduits of the hull. Insane laughter and an occasional voice. He stuck his head back inside and listened again, more closely now that he was expecting to actually hear something. He couldn't make out the words that were in with the laughing, though. Whoever it was was talking and laughing at the same time, it seemed.

Pulling his head back out he looked around the hold for some sign of the source. This particular wall was on the outside. Whatever was making the sounds couldn't be on the other side of the wall. But he couldn't see anyone else with their heads inside this wall and there was no one standing near the wall either. "Maybe... there's someone inside the wiring conduits?" he suggested.

"In that small space? No way, there's not even a full foot between the inner wall and the outer hull."

"Well, then where's it... huh?" He stopped talking as his scouter suddenly went off, along with all of the rest in the hold.

10,000... 50,000... 120,000... 290,000...

"Shit!" someone called as their scouter suddenly exploded. The rest soon followed suit. "What was that?"

"What the hell!" Yamm yelled.

Artachok turned around to see what his partner had seen and his own eyes widened. There was green light shinning out through the glass window of the cryostasis chamber. And then the light began seeping out through the gap between the door and the chamber walls. "Shit! Everyone, move back!" he yelled.

The green light quickly built in intensity until, suddenly, the door to the cryostasis chamber was blown off its magnetic seal and flung clear across the hold where it slammed into the other wall and stuck, imbedded. Frozen mist flowed out of the chamber and down over the floor and laughing filled air for a moment before fading away. And then a hand reached out, grabbed the edge of the chamber, and a person stepped out. He had wild black hair and black eyes and wore only a golden necklace and the leggings of a blue two piece body suit.

As his eyes roamed over those in the hold, some watching him in confusion, some in shock, some in fear, he grinned and started laughing again. "Kill!" he cried, thrusting an arm out and firing off a wave of green energy. The blast hit four of the nearest workers, their cries sounded for less than a second before stopping. When the light faded there was nothing left of them. Chaos broke out in the hold instantly, then, as the rest of the crew ran for the exit. With their scouters now wasted they couldn't even call the bridge for help, or to warn anyone else.

"Ah!" one of them cried, coming a sudden halt and then falling onto his ass. The man from the chamber had just suddenly appeared in front of him, grinning.

"Were is Kakkarotto?" Brolly demanded. The man on the ground just stared at him, wide eyed and shaking. "Kakkarotto! Where is he!" he yelled. Still getting no response he growled, reached down, grabbed the man's head in one of his hands, and then squeezed until he crushed it. Those who were close enough to see yelled out and started pushing others out of their way in their rush to get out through the only door that worked.

Brolly turned from the corpse and looked over the crowd again. Faster than anyone could see he shot across the hold and reached out a hand grabbing hold of a braid. He gave the woman's hair a yank and pulled her closer to him, then wrapped his hand around her neck and lifted her up off the ground so they were at eye level. "Tell me where Kakkarotto is!" he demanded, holding her so close their noses were touching. The woman's mouth moved as she tried to speak but the hold on her throat was too tight for her to force air through it.

He yelled in frustration as he reached his other hand out, grabbed hold of her hair again, and then ripped her head off. He tossed the body aside then turned and pitched her head at one of the few people still in the hold. It impacted their back with a sickening crack, the force of the hit broke her back and she fell, her legs no longer working. "Where is Kakkarotto?" he demanded, walking toward the downed soldier. The woman turned her head toward the approaching man but continued to try and claw her way out of the hold.

"Tell me! Tell me where he is!" Brolly demanded as he reached her. The Sai-jin, however, was too focused on her attempt to crawl away to reply. With a roar of anger and frustration Brolly slammed his foot down on the woman's head popping it like a grape. He turned then and looked around the hold. It was empty, the rest of them had gotten away already. Scowling he turned toward the door they'd gone through and started walking. His eyes flashed and the door was blown off its hinges as he neared.

XXX

"Captain!" a voice bellowed through the halls.

"Captain!" came another cry.

The Captain scowled as he turned his chair toward the door off of the bridge. "What's with all this shouting?" he demanded as six people spilled onto the bridge. "What's up with you? You're all shaking!"

"Cargo... cargo hold..." one of them panted. "Cryostasis chamber... Not... not normal..."

"Monster..." panted another.

"He's completely crazy!" one of the ones in the back yelled as more people clambered onto the bridge.

Suddenly the warning sirens sounded and the Captain turned from the crewmen who'd just arrived to those at their bridge posts. "What's the alarm?" he asked.

"Emergency escape pod launch." reported one of the workers. "Five pods from down in the cargo area just launched."

"Say what!" the Captain demanded. "I didn't authorize any evacuation! Target those pods and blast them! I don't tolerate deser..." He was cut off mid yell by a loud explosion that rocked the entire ship. "What the fuck was that!"

"It's him!" a voice cried from down the hall. "He's coming, he's coming this way!"

"What!" one of those who'd ran onto the bridge cried. "Are you serious?"

"Nooooooo...!" screamed someone deeper in the ship, the cry suddenly cut short.

"Would someone tell me what the _fuck_ is going on?" the Captain demanded, turning to face the crewmen who'd pilled onto the bridge.

"The cryostasis chamber down in the hold." one of them said. "There was a person in it."

"So?"

"He's nuts!" someone else yelled. "He vaporized Yamm, Siddara, Artachok, and Kabage as soon as he got out of the thing! In one blast!"

"He crushed Rycel's head with one hand!"

"He ripped Spina's head right off!"

"And then threw it at Inikuzu!"

"What are you..."

"Kakkarotto! Tell me where Kakkarotto is!" a voice echoed through the halls.

"Open fire!" came another voice, followed by the sounds of ki blasts zipping through the air. And then another explosion came that shook the entire ship.

"Tell me where he is!" Brolly demanded again, from much closer this time. There was a gargled reply of some sort, a cry of anger, and then the upper half of a body came surging through the door to land on the floor of the bridge, only feet from where the Captain sat.

"Sir!" one of the bridge crew yelled. "Ten more escape pods have just launched!"

"Forget about them for now." the Captain said, getting to his feet. "I'll deal with them after I deal with this lunatic." He pushed his way past the crew that had crowded onto his bridge and came to a stop just beyond the door. There was blood all over the floor, walls, and ceiling. A man he'd never seen before stood about fifty feet away holding one of the crewmen against the wall with a single hand to the chest.

"Where is Kakkarotto?" the man demanded.

"You!" the Captain yelled, crossing his arms and scowling. "Who are you?"

Brolly turned from the man he currently had pinned and looked toward the Captain. "Who are you?" he demanded.

"I'm the Captain of this ship." he replied. "I'm the one who asks the questions around here. Now, who the hell are you?"

"I am Paragus's son! I am Brolly!" he said, tossing the crewman he had aside and turning to fully face the Captain. "Now, where is Kakkarotto?"

_"Brolly!"_ the Captain thought in shock. _"No one's been named that since back then, those already sharing the name had it changed. This guy's not nearly old enough to be that Brolly. Besides, he's been dead for decades."_The Captain scowled at this new trouble maker. "Don't play games with me." he demanded. "Brolly died decades ago and you're not old enough."

"Enough! Tell me where Kakkarotto is!"

"Why? Why do you want to know where Master Kakkarotto is?"

Brolly grinned. "Kill him! The voices say to kill! Kill all! Kill Kakkarotto!"

The Captain laughed. "Kill Master Kakkarotto?" he asked. "No one can kill him, he's the strongest in the universe."

"I will kill." Brolly said. "Where is he?"

The Captain rolled his eyes and decided that talking with someone who was obviously missing more than a few brain cells wouldn't get him anywhere. So, instead, he charged at him, pulling back a fist and charging it with ki. He'd just have to knock this joker out and let the Masters deal with him when they got to Saiya.

The Captain's fist slammed into Brolly's face with a loud crack but the other Sai-jin didn't even flinch. "Wha-what!" the Captain yelled, drifting back.

Suddenly an arm snapped out and a hand wrapped around his throat. "Weakling!" he laughed. "Tell me, where is Kakkarotto?"

"Saiya!" one of those on the bridge yelled.

Brolly turned his gaze from the Captain to those standing in the doorway to the bridge. "Saiya?" he asked. The word sounded... familiar. Saiya. Home. Saiya was home. "Kakkarotto is on Saiya?" Those jammed in the doorway all nodded and Brolly grinned. "Take me!" he ordered.

"We... we can't..." one of them stammered.

"Why?" Brolly asked, scowling.

"The ship... it's damaged. We can't move it. It's dead."

_Dead_

Brolly growled and held a hand to his head, squinting his eyes closed against a sudden rush of pain.

_Dead_

"Go away!" he yelled, suddenly throwing the Captain behind him and slamming his other hand against his head. "Go away! Go away!" A sudden burst of energy washed out through the hall and blew those in the doorway over. Abruptly the hall was bathed in green light and the person closest to the door let out a scream of terror as they saw the ball of ki forming in front of Brolly as the Sai-jin continued to hold his hands to his head. And then the blast surged off down the hall and charged into the bridge where it exploded.

Panting, Brolly opened his eyes again and straightened up. He scowled at the bridge, everyone there looked dead now. Turning he saw the Captain slumped against a wall a few feet away. He was still alive and still conscious, just staring up at him in fear and shock. "Take me to Kakkarotto. Take me to Saiya." he ordered.

The Captain swallowed. "The ship can't move." he said. "There's... there's a rescue ship coming. Two weeks. It... it's going to take us back to Saiya."

Brolly grinned. "New ship? New ship, new crew. Don't need old crew." He raised an arm and pointed it at the Captain who's eyes widened in terror as he saw the green ball of ki take form.

XXX

"You can't be serious!" a soldier yelled. "It's suicide! He tore right through everyone! Even the Captain's dead!"

"You're a Sai-jin!" his commander yelled, slapping him. "Act like one." With that she turned around and gazed at the others in the room. There weren't many, only six. Seven, counting her. As far as she knew they were the only ones still alive on the entire ship. All of the emergency escape pods had already launched. She figured at least thirty people had managed to escape, though who knew where they'd land. The truth was she wished she was on one of those pods. Even a Sai-jin knew when a situation was hopeless. This... monster that had descended upon them, he could kill each of them without even trying.

But, as a Sai-jin, she also refused to just roll over and die. Refused to hide. Since she couldn't get off the ship she would stay. And since she was staying she would fight. She would lose, she would die, she knew that. But at least it would be a death worthy of Sai-jin. A death she could be proud of. And, if the operation she had outlined went as planned, a death with meaning. She didn't know how strong this guy was, didn't know if he really was who he'd apparently claimed to be, but she did know he was intent on attacking Master Kakkarotto. No matter what the Masters had to be warned.

At the very least the coming rescue ship could blast the Talon into space debris. That would put an end to the man, even if he was Brolly. She'd originally planned to do that herself. Blow the ship apart with the self-destruct system. However, it hadn't worked. Apparently maintenance hadn't repaired the self destruct yet. And the ship's hull was resistant to damage up to seventy thousand. No one on the ship had been that strong, and no one left was over ten thousand. So they couldn't even blast a hole in the hull to suck him into space with. And all of the controls for the air systems were on the bridge with the intruder so they couldn't even just jettison the air.

That meant that this plan was their only option. "Alright." she said. "Does everyone know their jobs?" she asked. She got head nods from the other six, though they were all reluctant ones. "Be proud." she said. "We'll all be heroes for this. Even if he isn't really Brolly as he claims he's still threatening one of the Masters. One of our own people. We may not be enough to fight him but getting word to the Masters will let them deal with him before he gets to Saiya. Alright, let's go!" she ordered. The seven of them turned from the table and hurried out into the hallway and quickly made their way up toward the bridge.

She just hoped that her plan would work. She'd been just coming up the ladder to the command deck of the ship when the Captain had confronted their attacker. She'd pulled back then and watched until Brolly killed the Captain. That's when she decided on her new plan. She wasn't sure how much of the bridge systems still worked, though. The ComNet terminal could have been destroyed. If it was then she and the others were walking to their deaths for nothing. Even if it worked there was still the chance that someone on one of the escape pods would get word to the Masters in time to warn them of this man and his coming and so their actions and death wouldn't have as much significance.

She shook her head as she started up the ladder to the command deck. Thinking like that wouldn't help anything so she focused on the idea of being a legendary hero. Standing up against a powerful opponent she couldn't beat, giving her life to save the Masters. The kind of person that was talked about for centuries even after they were dead, the kind that had songs written about them, movies made about them. She couldn't help but smile as she pictured her name in the history books along side Bardock's.

Reaching the top of the ladder she froze and her smile vanished. There was a pair of eyes staring right into hers. For a moment she thought Brolly had been right there waiting for them but then she realized the eyes weren't blinking. She blinked her own to help get them to focus and then she realized the eyes were attached to a head that was no longer part of a body. Shaking herself a little to force the shock and sudden surge of fear away she climbed up out of the ladder shaft.

She came to a stop just outside the bridge and motioned for the others to stop as well. Easing her way forward she peered around the edge of the door frame to get a look at the bridge. Brolly was sitting in the Captain's chair tossing something back and forth from hand to hand. She couldn't see what. Looking around at the damage to the bridge she smiled a little. She could see the ComNet terminal was still working. "Alright." she said, turning back to her men. "The terminal still works so we're a go. Do your jobs everyone and we'll all go down in history."

They nodded and she turned and charged into the room quickly moving around behind the Captain's chair to the other side of the bridge, away from the ComNet terminal. Five of the others followed her and then all of them opened up with ki blasts at the man in the chair. As soon as they exploded the final member of their small group ran onto the bridge and straight for the ComNet terminal. Meanwhile Brolly had dropped what he'd been playing with, which turned out to be someones head, and turned to face the six of them.

"More insects." he said, standing. "I will kill all!"

The commander lunged at him and the last thing she saw was his face. She never even saw the backhand coming that twisted her head around so that she was looking backwards. Before she'd even hit the ground two of the others were also dead, heads smashed in. The other three charged in as well and Brolly blasted two of them into dust with a single ball of ki. He grabbed the arm of the last one and was just about to punch them when he heard a voice behind him. Turning he saw the final crewman at the ComNet terminal talking to someone. With a growl he pitched the person he was holding at them and then fired an energy blast at both. The explosion obliterated both bodies and fried the ComNet terminal.

"Now I wait." he said, sitting back down in his chair. "Then, I kill Kakkarotto!" he declared. He smiled then, as he started to laugh.


	40. Exploration

_Chapter Forty - Exploration_

Inferna and Cold lead their small group of scientists and researchers through the main hall of the shrine heading for their next room to explore. In the time since the fight with Jikoku the two of them had gone through fifteen rooms. They'd spent no more than six hours to a room, or what the pair had felt were six hours at least, during that time. Twice during their outings they'd been contacted by a concerned Fyuu who had felt that far more time had passed, and once they were told that no more than ten minutes had passed since their departure. The pair was quickly realizing that the further you were from other groups the more random the flow of time was in comparison. Sometimes faster, sometimes slower.

Cold was also sure that one of his men had given him a report the previous day on something he hadn't even ordered investigated until an hour _after_ he'd gotten the report. It was the only such instance he knew of like that, but it made things even more confusing. The idea that time flowed so differently here that some place else could receive orders he hadn't even given yet... Still, their efforts at forcing their way from room to room in the shrine were starting to pay off. They'd not yet found what they'd set out to find but they had found two rooms they had set up the main research groups to study.

They had their forces split into four teams at present. Yiku, Rikoo, and Fyuu were all guarding a group of their own while the two Masters had their fourth group. They'd considered splitting up as well but decided, in the end, that sticking together would be better. They found that bouncing ideas off of each other about each room's purpose helped to pass the time and made the entire affair a little less dull when there was nothing for them to do but stand there and let the men work. Both were certain, however, that they would find their answers eventually. They were just hopping it was before the next of the Shitennou surfaced so that they'd have new questions to ask.

"Hey, Cold, look at that." Inferna said, pointing down the hall.

Cold followed the line of her finger and raised an eyebrow. This was new. The vast majority of doorways along the hall were on the inside wall. Those that were on the outside wall had all, thus far, lead to stairs. The pair had yet to go up or down any of the stairwells, sticking to the first floor for the time being. Ahead of them now was a doorway on the outside wall but, unlike any other doorway they'd yet seen, this one had statues standing on either side of it. A man on the left, a woman on the right.

They both stood on stone bases, raised up from the floor about a foot. Going from that Cold estimated the woman to be about five and a half feet tall while the man was just over six foot. The pair stood, facing each other, holding swords in their hands that crossed in front of, as though to bar entry to, the door they stood beside. As they drew closer to them Cold was able to get a better view of their appearances. Tunic like clothes, somewhat long and pointed ears, and general body and face builds that would let them almost pass as Human or Sai-jin.

The man even had the spiky hair that Sai-jins were so known for. It was short, only jutting up three or four inches at most, but it stood almost completely on end. The woman, on the other hand, had long flowing hair that spilled halfway down her back and was draped, as well, over her shoulders. The amount of detail in the figures was quit impressive. Cold could almost make out the stitch work of the fabric their tunics were supposed to be made of. The only other place he'd ever seen such detail in a statue had been in the Grand Hall with the towering statue of Souzousha located there.

"Our mysterious heroes, perhaps?" Cold asked as they came to a stop in front of the statues, gazing at the door they were blocking. It was an ornate golden door, far more splendid than any other of the few doors they'd seen in the building. There also seemed to be something carved onto it but Cold was unable to discern what it was, exactly. Writing, he figured, though in no language he knew.

"Maybe. Though I doubt great heroes would be standing guard duty like this." said Inferna. She looked back at the men they had with them. "Can any of you read what's written on them or the door?"

Cold glanced down at the Valkano for a moment and then turned his focus to the statues again. Sure enough there was writing on them as well, something he'd missed. The same odd language seemed to be carved on the swords the two individuals held while a different language was carved on the bases of the statues.

"We've seen the writing on the bases before." said one of them. "But we can't translate it. It's from the beginning of the prophecies. The first language written on the walls in the Grand Hall." They'd all come to the agreement some time ago that that language was the native language of the people who'd once lived here. The fact the same writing was on these statues implied to Cold that they were likely representations of the original natives of the world.

"And the swords and door?" he asked.

"I've never seen it before." said one of the workers as they gazed at them.

"Hey... wait a second..." said another as she walked up to the swords. She ran a finger along the edge of one of the stone blades, directly under the writing carved onto it. "This isn't a language."

"Not a language?" asked another scientist, walking up.

"Well, not exactly." she said. "I suppose it could be _considered_ a language. They're music notes. It's a really old styling that's coming back into popularity on my world again. 'Classical Notation', they call it."

"Music notes?" Inferna asked, raising an eyebrow. "Interesting."

"I can synthesize the sounds." she said, pulling a small computer out of a small holster at her waist. "Give me a moment." She set to work coping the notes into her computer from each sword making sure to get them and their placements exact, then did the same with the door. "Alright, I've got the notes copied in. The question is, what type of instrument should we use?"

"Hey, look at this." another said, pointing at the statue of the woman. "Is this a flute?"

"Hmm?" The woman walked over and looked at the object on the woman's belt, then moved over and checked the statue of the man. He had the same object on his belt. "I don't think that's a flute..." she said. "Hang on." She brought her computer back up and connected in with the central database on Cold's ship. A moment later she was scrolling through displays of wind instruments. "Here we go, it's called an ocarina. Well, I guess that's the instrument the song is meant to be played on." A few button presses later a soft melody was sounding from the speaker in her computer.

"Well, it's a nice song at any rate, but I don't think..." Inferna trailed off as lines of light suddenly traced up along the statues, from their bases up along their legs, over their bodies, across their arms, and to the points of their swords. The notes on the swords began to glow as light traced up along the golden door and then those notes glowed as well. A grinding sound started a second later as the statues moved, their arms raising out of the way, and then the golden door faded into nothingness just as the song finished playing.

"An interesting way to open a door." said Cold as he walked forward to get a better look at the statues. "And I see no joints to these, no means of mobility. It seems as though the stone itself simply... bent, to allow them to move. Our natives appear to have been able magicians."

"Magic?" Inferna asked, walking up beside him and eyeing the statues as well. "I don't believe in magic."

"Well, they say that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." replied Cold. "I have seen things I would consider magic in my days. Whether it truly was or was simply something beyond my realm of knowledge..." he shrugged.

Inferna nodded. "That I could accept. Especially in this place where their technology is already well beyond anything we've even yet imagined."

"Indeed. Well, let's keep moving. I'm interested in seeing what our two friends here were guarding." Inferna nodded once more and followed Cold into the room, leading their researchers with them. There were startled gasps all around as they gazed about at the room. It was a large and ornate place. Not quite as massive or decorated as the Grand Hall, but almost like the hall in miniature. If the Grand Hall had been made to accommodate a goddess than this room had likely been made to accommodate a king.

The room stood at least seventy-five yards tall, a hundred yards wide, and three hundred yards long. The ceiling was gold or gold plated, like that of the Grand Hall, the floors were marble, and marble pillars reached up from floor to ceiling every twenty five yards. A red carpet reached from the door to the opposite end of the room were a golden podium stood and where two more statues resided. Unlike the statue of Souzousha in the Grand Hall, however, these two were made from marble and not gold. They greatly resembled those standing guard outside the door but they were both male, one of them was only just over four foot while the other was maybe five foot eight, and both had mohawks.

"Lady Inferna!" one of the men called from behind them. Cold and Inferna turned to look just in time to see the golden door solidify back into place.

"Hopefully that song opens it from this side, too." Inferna said, scowling a little. And then she noticed something else that caught her eye and she moved back toward the door. "Cold, come look at this." she said.

Cold followed her over and saw what had caught her attention almost instantly. Starting on the right hand side of the door, as they were facing it, and wrapping all the way around the room, were a series of painted murals. The very first painting depicted two individuals who were unmistakably the ones standing guard outside the room. But instead of being in the tunics the statues wore they were in far more elegant attire. She in a long flowing white gown and he in a fancy and decorated red robe. His skin seemed to be a pale orange color while hers was a light turquoise, and her hair was pink while his was red.

"I think our guards were husband and wife." Cold said, gazing over the image. It certainly seemed to be depicting some type of wedding ceremony. "And royalty..." he said, turning his gaze to the next painting. It showed the man and woman sitting on thrones and wearing crowns. The woman had one hand resting on an obviously enlarged stomach. The next image was that of the two holding an infant child with red hair and grayish hued skin in their arms. The fourth image wasn't as cheery, however, and depicted the man in chain mail armor standing at the head of an army of similar looking, and similarly dressed, individuals. They were standing opposite another group of much shorter purple and red skinned people in blue and green robes.

"A recorded history?" asked Inferna, as she gazed from that image to the next which showed the two sides locked in battle.

"Of a specific event, it would seem." agreed Cold. "And, luckily for us, in picture form and not written." He moved to the image after the battle and saw the field of fighting now littered with the dead and dying. It was a dark and desolate image, obviously meant to convey the horrors war to those who saw it. The next image, however, came back to cheeriness again. It showed the man and woman standing together and smiling again. The child of before was no longer an infant now but he was holding one in his own arms, also with grayish skin, and smiling at him.

The paintings continued on along the wall showing the two boys growing up, the birth of a sister with light purple skin and bluish-white hair, and her growing up with them, and showing more bouts of violence between the pointy eared individuals and the short robed people. Then came an image of the two boys, the youngest no more than ten and the older boy no more than fifteen, fighting three of the short robed men. Just in the background of the battle Cold could make out the bodies of their parents, blood pooled around them. Apparently their enemies had succeeded in an assassination attempt. The next image showed the elder boy being crowned and then the next had him on the throne where his father once sat.

That was the last image along the left hand wall. They'd now reached the end of the room where the two statues stood. They were clearly of the red haired boys in the paintings on the walls. Slightly older than they yet were in the paintings, but them. Cold figured they were twenty and fifteen in the statues. Before moving on to the next wall of paintings he stopped in front of the podium before the statues. Writing was carved into its surface. That unreadable language of the natives. Expected, but still a disappointment.

"Oh my..." Inferna said from somewhere else in the room. Cold turned to find her and saw her about half way down the right hand wall already. She was staring at one of the paintings there and Cold moved over to get a better look. It showed the two boys, now as old as they were in their statues, facing off against some sort of gigantic monster. Cold turned his gaze down the wall toward the statues again and saw another image of the monster, though it didn't reveal the size like this one. Apparently it had been the creation of the short robed people as the next phase of this on going war.

Cold followed the mural again and watched as both boys were defeated by the monster but managed to escape with their lives. The next image was of the monster laying waste to a city and a castle. Fires burned and people were screaming and running. The next image had the boys back and wielding swords different from those they'd had in previous images, ready to face the monster again. The next image had one of them apparently playing a song on his ocarina while the other was slicing the monster in half.

The image after that showed the two halves of the monster being drawn into some object, Could couldn't tell what. The following image depicted the boys being laid to rest, the effort of defeating and trapping the monster apparently having killed them. The final image was of the girl, their younger sister, now sitting on the throne and wearing the crown first her father and then her brother had worn. She was smiling and crying, her parents and brothers standing, semi-transparent, behind her.

"Interesting." Cold said. "It would seem these two boys would be the great heroes Jikoku mentioned."

"Yeah. Saved their world from that... thing. Apparently at the cost of their own lives. I'd say that qualifies them for the title."

"I wonder, though..." Cold began, looking back toward the creature. "That thing doesn't seem to be dead. Perhaps it is the sleeping 'it' we heard of?"

Inferna pursed her lips in thought. "If it is then I hope it _stays_ asleep." she said.

XXX

Everfrost sighed. He couldn't help but feel sorry for Zukina. The Sai-jin had seemed to be in good spirits after their landing on Xentron and her mood had improved after being told that Storm had gone off shopping on her own. It had then soured significantly upon the Wathor's return to the ship and the Sai-jin's discovery of just _why_ she'd gone off shopping on her own. That had been twenty days ago now and the Sai-jin's mood had not improved in the slightest since then. Not that he could blame her as it was now impossible for her to go more than thirty feet from where ever Storm was.

One of the items the Wathor had purchased, one of the things that he and Xeno had refused to buy for her, was a restraint system. A common item in the slave trade. One person would wear the master unit while another would have the slave unit on. The master unit on this particular model was a ring while the slave unit was a collar. If the person wearing the slave unit left a predetermined range set by the master unit they would get a powerful shock. Attempt to go even further and they'd be shocked again, harder.

What's more, this particular unit also came equipped with a ki line system. With this the ring could be linked in, physically, with the collar, and a leash of sorts would be created. The energy for the leash was supplied by the twin units but ki line systems drew the actual power of the lines they made from people, in this case the one wearing the ring. Thus the 'leash' that reached from Storm's ring to Zukina's collar was as powerful as the Wathor. Too powerful for the Sai-jin to get away from, though she had attempted to do so a few times the first time they'd all gone outside. Storm had not turned the leash off since then and was, constantly, dragging Zukina around town with it.

Such was the case now. He, Storm, Rain, Xeno, Eve, and Nail had gone out to explore more of the city, since there really wasn't much else to do at the moment, and Storm had brought Zukina along, leash in place. Everfrost felt that if _he_ had a Sai-jin always glaring at him like that, even if he were nearly three times stronger than them, he'd be a little more worried about his life than Storm seemed to be. Of course, he also got the distinct impression that the only reason Storm continued to use the leash and drag Zukina around by it was because of just how much it upset her. That whole Sai-jin pride thing.

"Honestly." Rain said, rolling her eyes, as Storm gave a hard yank on the energy leash so that Zukina was up beside her instead of trailing behind them all at the end of the fifteen foot line. "Can't you give the poor thing a break?"

"I'm not a _'poor thing'_." Zukina growled, rubbing her neck with one hand where the collar had bit into it at.

"You know, you probably shouldn't be snapping at someone who's actually trying to help." Eve said from where she was examining a necklace at a small outdoor vendor's stand.

Zukina sighed. She knew Eve was right but Rain just looked so much like her sister she considered them the same person. "I still don't see why you couldn't just leave me back at the ship." she muttered. "Or let me go."

"I spent ten hours filling out those damned WMC forms." said Storm. "Do you have any idea how boring that is, or how much my hand was cramped after I finished?"

"Oh, excuse me." said Zukina sarcastically. "I'm _so_ sorry I inconvenienced you _so_ much. A hand cramp, that must have been _so_ painful. Meanwhile I've had _four_ broken fingers, a shattered ankle, _six_ broken legs, _two_ shattered knees, _four_ broken arms, _eleven_ dislocated shoulders, _three_ cracked ribs, a fractured hip, and _two_ fractured jaws. But I guess those don't really compare to a _cramped hand_."

"Well, if you'd just do what you were told, you wouldn't have had any of those injuries, now would you?" Storm said, giving the leash another yank for emphasis.

Xeno closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. "One of these days one of those two is going to kill the other one." he muttered.

"If Storm can't find the time to finish the training process, you're probably right." Rain agreed. "She was an idiot to take a Mate while we were out on assignment, especially a Sai-jin. Zukina's power has increased over a thousand points since the first time I saw her."

"Training... ugh." Eve said as she left the vendor behind and joined the others again. "I've never been a fan of the whole slavery thing."

"It's part of our culture." said Rain. "Wathors have taken Mates, literally speaking, since as far back as our records go. That's nearly eight thousand years. Every single one of us knows there's always the chance we'll be the ones taken, instead of the ones taking."

"Wathors, maybe." said Eve. "But Zukina's a Sai-jin. She didn't exactly grow up in that culture."

"It's not like Sai-jins don't do the same thing on occasion." Storm countered. "There's plenty of Sai-jins out there who's Mates were... less than willing in the beginning. Such as the Mates of Masters Vegeta, Kakkarotto, and Gohan. And anyway, the Masters say it's fine, they wouldn't have passed the WMC laws allowing it otherwise." She turned her gaze back to Zukina then. "Which is something you should keep in mind." she said. "Legally speaking you _have_ to obey me."

"I'm rather surprised that the Masters would allow you to take a Mate from their races, or their troops." Nail said. It was his first trip out of the ship since their arrival on Xentron. Ferri had done some digging around the city and managed to locate a holographic image inducer. With it the Namek's appearance could be disguised. It was a simple vest like device that he had to wear. Currently he looked like a Human in something of a blue suit, yellow shirt and a tie, with reddish-brown eyes, and 'fluffy' dark green hair.

"They prefer things to run smoothly in the Empire and the more concessions they make to the right groups the smoother things go." said Rain. "Wathors are a warrior race like the Sai-jins. Having us as allies gives them another three billion soldiers. And I've found the Masters don't really care much about anything that doesn't affect them directly."

"I still say you should cut her some slack." said Eve. "I think if you were a little nicer she probably wouldn't cause you so much trouble."

Rain laughed. "A Wathor being nice to their taken Mate would be as likely a Sai-jin giving up food for a week." she said. "But I have to agree with Eve, Storm. You're pushing things a little too far given our current situation. Things would be different if we were back on our world, or even just at a base somewhere, but we're not. We're in the middle of nowhere with very little resources open to us."

Storm sighed. "Alright, alright." she muttered as she reached down and ran a finger over the ring on her right hand. The glowing blue leash that ran from ring to collar shimmered and then vanished.

"Thanks." Zukina said softly in Eve's ear. She'd found, over the last several weeks, that she rather liked the Nezorf, something she was surprised by since the other woman was very un-Sai-jin like in personality. Xeno and Everfrost were nice enough as well, but Eve was the only one from the group she was willing to consider a friend. Tao she'd barely spoken with and Nail kept to himself.

Eve shrugged. "Just don't do anything stupid." she said. "I think so long as you don't cause her problems she'll go easier on you." Zukina frowned. "I know, I know." said Eve, seeing the look. "But I've always found the best way to deal with a situation is to flow with it and try to control it instead of fighting against it. It's gotten me this far. I'd be locked up in an Imperial prison right now, or maybe even executed at this point, if I didn't work that way."

"Huh?" the Sai-jin asked. "Why would you be imprisoned or executed?"

"How do you think she got to be such a good hacker that she can avoid even Dr. Gero's security measures?" Xeno asked. They knew the doctor had detected her intrusions by the simple fact that security had been increased, but Eve was still able to circumvent the measures. What's more, she'd even verified, by hacking into Gero's computers, that he hadn't been able to trace a single one of her hacks.

"I... never really gave it much thought..." Zukina said. She knew, of course, about how deep into the system Eve had gotten. She'd broken through pretty much every defensive barrier that she'd come across. The Nezorf very nearly had complete and total access to anything on the Imperial Network. "What'd you do?"

"I used to work freelance. Did hacking jobs for anyone who needed something done. Typically one company wanting to steal data from another. MechaDyne hired me one time, about three years back, wanted me to steal the data on Capsule technology from the CC computer network for them. I got in alright, got the data, and got back out. I'd _thought_ it was a clean job. No detection, no traces, nothing. Only... when I opened the door to leave the hotel room I was staying in there was a CC security team standing there pointing their guns at my head. I was given two options then. Let them turn me over to the Imperial Police or return what I'd taken, join CC, and pretend the hack never happened. I took option two. That was only the second time of two I'd ever been traced."

"Eve's the closest thing to a slave that Capsule Corp. employs." said Xeno.

"What do you mean?"

"I signed a twenty year contract." Eve answered. She sighed and slipped her hands into the pockets of her coolant suit. The suit looked a lot like a light blue body suit, only it was thick, squishy, and rubbery instead of thin, stretchy, and velvety. "If I break it at any time they turn over all the information about my hack and data theft to the Imperial Police. And the contract I signed was a full contract. They say where I go, where live, what I do, everything. It's not exactly slavery but it's as close as you can get without crossing over that line."

_"I guess that explains a few things about why she's so nice to me and always on Storm's case for me."_ Zukina thought. _"She may not actually be a slave herself but she knows something of what it's like."_ She found herself liking the Nezorf even more, now. "So... what was the first time?" she asked.

"Uh, well, you know that network crash from ten years ago?" she asked. The Sai-jin nodded. "That was me. Er, it was an accident, though."

"An... accident?" Zukina asked. "How do you _accidentally_ crash the entire Imperial Network? And I'd heard the crash was supposed to be some sort of OS bug."

"The OS bug thing was just their cover." said Eve. "But partly true. I got into the system through a security hole in the OS the network used back then. I crashed the network by accident because my attempt at hacking into the Imperial banking network was detected so I started shutting down pathways and stuff to try and block the trace while still transferring the funds I was after." She shrugged. "What I hadn't realized was that the Imperial banking network was linked directly into the central mainframe on Saiya. So, when I crashed the banking network to throw off my pursuers... I sort of crashed the entire network."

Zukina stopped walking. "You... you stole money directly from the Imperial banking network?" she asked in surprise. She let out a gasp of pain a second later as her collar shocked her and, cursing under her breath, she rushed to catch up with the others again.

"Yeah. Around three hundred million credits." said Eve. "Though I haven't been able to touch a single cent of it."

"How come?"

"The guys who detected my hack had managed to trace me despite the network crash." she explained. "I would have been charged and arrested but they had no actual proof it was me and I didn't admit to it even after a week of interrogation. Then, suddenly, they found a new trail on the money that lead them away from me and I was set free."

Zukina blinked as she looked Eve up and down. _"She got through a week of Imperial Police interrogation without breaking?"_ she thought in awe. Her opinion of the Nezorf had just improved even more. Anyone that could last that long was made of some pretty strong stuff, even if they weren't very powerful. Especially considering how fast she'd given in to Storm's demands the first time on the Talon. She hadn't lasted more than thirty minutes, at best. "But what lead them away from you?" she asked at last. "Where'd that new trail come from?"

"Safety measure I'd taken." Eve replied. "I set up a remote terminal to make a new hack and some money transfers if I didn't enter a password before the timer ran out. It made it look to the Imperials that someone else had stolen the money and was trying to hide it and trying to steal more. Unfortunately they managed to trace the transfer and marked all of the money."

"So... if you try and spend any of it..."

"The Imperial Police will be alerted to the transfer. They'll know what I bought, when I bought it, and where I bought it. And as most stores have security cameras they'll also be able to see who I am from that. So I've had no choice but to just let all of that money sit there."

XXX

"Ludic, Ridic." Tao said, nodding to each of them in turn.

"Ah, Tao." Ridic said, grinning. "I was starting to think those little flies hadn't passed on the message, or that you were avoiding us."

"I've just been rather busy." Tao said, clasping his hands behind his back. "I did send a message along that I would be a while in coming."

Ridic nodded. "Yeah, we got it." he said. "But you've never taken this long before. No matter, it's not important. You're here now so we can get down to business. I trust you've got the money to cover the port rent?"

"In a manner of speaking." Tao replied. He moved one hand out from behind his back and started digging through his pockets. "My funds are almost entirely tied up in acquiring a new ship. However, I had my old ship appraised." He pulled out a small computer and gave it a toss over to the two large men. "As you can see, the total value of the ship is enough to cover a ten month period of rent. My companions and I still need it currently as living quarters, but once the new ship is finished I will be able to sell the old one. That will be in two to three months, depending on how construction goes."

"I see where you're going." Ludic said, looking at the data on the computer screen. "We wait until your new ship is done and you're ready to leave and we get all the money from the sale, yes?"

"Exactly." Tao said. He'd dealt with these two several times before during visits to Xentron. They were two of the weaker Bosses on the planet. Independently, anyway. They'd both been wary of him, initially, but the three of them had settled into a friendly relationship rather quickly. Tao saw no reason to 'rock the boat', as it were, so he'd not caused them any trouble and he'd even done the two of them a few favors over the years. In turn he got more leeway with them than the average person. He didn't know of anyone else who could have made them wait as long as he had and still have their ship in one piece, for instance.

"Alright, you've got yourself a deal." Ludic said, grinning. "You're lucky we like you, Tao. We don't normally take late payments like..."

"Hang on." Ridic said.

"What is it, brother?" asked Ludic. "You're not worried Tao will cheat us? He's never caused trouble before."

"No, no." said Ridic. "He's one of the few around here I trust. But have you forgotten, brother? The notice we got a couple weeks back?"

Ludic frowned for a moment, thinking. "Ah, right, yes." he said at last. "I had forgotten about that. Hmm, that is a problem."

"What's the problem?" asked Tao.

"Well, it's like this." Ridic began. "We received a notice from The Cabal about two weeks ago. As you know, all transmissions off world are recorded and monitored for anything... unwanted. One such transmission was made the same day you arrived. It went out into the Imperial network, to Saiya, and told the Empire that you are here."

Tao frowned. He couldn't think of how he'd been tracked to Xentron, or anyone on the planet who'd inform the Empire he was there. Ferri certainly wouldn't have and she was the only former Imper... _"One of my new passengers."_ he thought, frowning more. _"I would say the Sai-jin was the most likely candidate."_

"You see the problem, I'm sure." Ridic said.

"You don't think anyone from the Empire would actually come here for me, do you?" Tao asked. "I may cause a little trouble now and then but there are far bigger fish out there than me."

Ridic tapped a finger against his chin. "Maybe. Maybe not." he said. "The Earth was destroyed, yes? Humans must be big nuisance for that to happen. And you have people with you now. You were always alone before. Who are these new people?"

"Survivors from a ship malfunction." Tao answered. "I rescued them when their hull ruptured and they agreed to help me for a while as payment for rescue."

"So, not Resistance?" asked Ludic.

"No." said Tao.

"Imperial?" asked Ridic.

"No." said Tao again. "Not soldiers, at least. Capsule Corp. employees."

Ludic blinked. "Capsule Corp.?" he asked. "Well then, they're good here. But still, this matter of transmission is not good."

"I'm not entirely sure how it happened." said Tao.

"Not entirely?" asked Ludic. "Then perhaps, partially?"

Tao wasn't sure how to answer that, exactly. Right or not about Zukina having sent the message, suggesting she might have to a Boss could put her in a lot of trouble. Then word that she was an Imperial soldier would get out and cause _him_ trouble. Plus Storm and Rain, while working for Capsule Corp., were also still _technically_ Imperial soldiers as well and that would likely get out. All of that would also put out word about Nail for sure, and the fact that the Namek was an escapee of Frieza's captivity, one that the Changeling would certainly want back, would cause them both even more trouble still. But lying to these two and being discovered would be as bad, if not worse.

"Maybe." Tao said. "Two of those I rescued are Wathor, one of them with a... new Mate."

Ridic blinked. "Ah, yes, the orange skin. I thought I knew that look. New Mate, you say? Untrained then?"

"Currently, yes."

Ridic nodded. "Problems are abundant with untrained slaves. Resentful ones even more so. Well, what's done is done but see it is not done again. If, by chance, Imperials do come for you, then do not damage our city or I take the cost of repairs from you. If you can kill them, though..." Ridic grinned, then. "I give you half discount on port rent for their bodies!"

Tao smirked. "I shall do my best."

XXX

Eve sighed as she leaned back against the wall of the building and stared at her feet. They'd come across a club during their exploration of the city and the two Wathor women had insisted on checking it out. Clubs were not Eve's thing, though. Too much body heat, for one. The coolant suit was good, it was keeping her at a fairly cool temperature, even if her face still felt like it was on fire, but she doubted it'd work as well in the club which was sure to be even hotter. She also wasn't a fan of the usual blaring music they played. Besides that, this particular club wouldn't have been her style even she had liked clubs, anyway.

It wasn't to Nail, Xeno, or Everfrost's tastes, either, so the four of the had remained outside. Zukina had wanted to remain outside as well but Storm refused to turn off the restraint system so the Sai-jin had been stuck following her in. A sign on the wall by the door announced that there would be a slave auction held inside that night. Under the sign were twelve cages, each of them holding one of the twelve slaves that was to be auctioned off that night. Most of them looked bored but Eve was sure two of them were terrified. Obviously they hadn't been slaves long.

Eve brought her head up from staring at the ground as a blast of music hit the street. "Finally." she said, seeing Rain and Storm coming out, Zukina right behind them. "Can we leave, now?" she asked.

"Sure." said Storm. "Though I fully plan on coming back tonight. I've got a few thousand credits saved up in my account and this seems the perfect place to spend some." Zukina snorted but didn't say anything.

"Shh." Nail said softly. "Not so loud."

"Oh, come on, what's the big deal?" Storm asked. "It's in my account, not on me."

Nail gave his head a light jerk down the road to their right and Storm turned to look, hiding it by making as though she were cracking her neck. Her eyes narrowed as she saw the three people leaning against the wall a block away making like they were just hanging out. It was clear, however, that they weren't 'just hanging out' as they kept casting glances in her direction. What's more, she recognized each of them. She'd been seeing them all day. No, wait, she'd seen one of them almost a week ago, too.

"They've been tailing us." she said, turning to face the others again. "And I saw one of them a week ago or so."

"That one with the ruined left eye, I saw him about ten days ago." Eve said, after casting her own covert glance their way. "I remember because I nearly ran into him."

"Why are they following us?" asked Xeno. "If they wanted something they'd just come up to us."

"I don't know but I don't like it." said Nail. "We should head back to the ship and let Tao know. He might... well, speak of the devil." The others all turned to look and saw Tao walking toward them. The three men at the wall looked toward him then went back to pretending to not be interested in anything. "We've got shadows." Nail said, nodding toward them.

"I know." replied Tao. "I've had one on and off for the last few days as well, whenever he was able to keep up, and I just finally found out why."

"What is it?" asked Everfrost.

"The Cabal has taken a small interest in us." replied Tao. "Mostly to make sure we don't cause trouble."

"Trouble?" asked Rain. "What sort of trouble could we cause?"

"The Imperial kind. It would seem the Empire knows that I am here." Tao noticed the sudden twitch Zukina made. Like the Sai-jin wanted to turn and run but then remembered she couldn't. It confirmed his suspicions.

"What?" Eve asked, shocked. "But... how? They didn't trace one of my hacks after all, did they?" she asked.

"No." replied Tao. "They were informed by someone on the planet. All transmissions off of Xentron are monitored by the Bosses for just such an occurrence. Thus The Cabal learning that the Empire knew of my being here, and thus our shadows."

"But... I thought this place had no ties to the Empire, that they hated anyone who did." said Storm. "Who would send..." she stopped then and turned to look back at Zukina. The Sai-jin didn't even bother to argue a defense, just glared right back at the Wathor. "You do realize you may have just gotten us all killed, don't you?" she demanded.

Eve blinked and then turned to see who and what Storm was talking about. "Zukina? You sent...?"

The Sai-jin nodded. "While all of you were busy with those two oafs after we first got here." she said, still glaring at Storm. "I don't care if you end up dead."

"Not just me." the Wathor said. "All of us, including you. Or didn't you think that far ahead?"

"What are you talking about?" Zukina laughed. "I intend to leave with whoever co..."

Storm sighed and put a hand to her forehead. "Honestly, Sai-jins must be one of the dumbest races in the universe." she muttered.

"What was that!" demanded Zukina.

"Zukina." Rain began. "Our presence here with Tao, and the fact that we _didn't_ contact anyone about him, makes us all guilty by association. Which means anyone who comes for him can kill us as well. That's not even considering Eve's hacking or what we've learned through it. You know what happens to the taken Mate of a Wathor once that Wathor is dead. I know you do, because I was there when Storm told you."

"That requires that they know." she said.

"Can you really be that dense?" Storm asked, lowering her hand. "Didn't we just talk about the WMC forms not more than three hours ago? I had to file _paper work_ to get _permission_ to take you. I didn't take you down to the hold until after all the paper work had cleared and you were officially listed as my Mate. It's been a matter of public record for over a month, now. Everyone in the Empire _already_ knows."

Zukina scowled. She _hadn't_ thought of that. There would be records saying that she 'belonged' to Storm now. _"Fuck it, I don't care."_ she thought. _"I'd rather be dead than be owned, anyway."_

"Perhaps it best we not talk about this in the open." Tao said. "Let's return to the ship for now and continue this there."

"Good idea." Eve said, glancing down to the three men again. They seemed to be more interested in their group now than they had been before. They weren't even pretending to be bored now. She was just about to start off in that direction when a pair of people walked onto their road from one of the side streets. Big people, one red and one blue, both wearing simple tunics. People Eve recognized from her stay in Imperial custody ten years ago, even out of their armor.

"Oh... shit..." she said softly, eyes going wide.


	41. Hide and Seek

_Chapter Forty-one - Hide and Seek_

"Oh... shit..." Eve said softly, eyes going wide. "Avo and Kado..."

Nail's head turned quickly at the sound of their names and his eyes narrowed at the sight of them. He'd never met them, so he didn't recognize them by appearance, but he did know of them by reputation. They were one of Frieza's three main Super Elite teams and the only one not currently missing any members. "We should get moving." he said, turning to go the other way.

Zukina bit her lip as everyone started to turn away from the pair, the two Imperials having not yet seen them. _"Well, I did just think I'd rather be dead than owned."_ she thought. _"Time to find out if I meant it."_ As Storm reached down toward her ring to re-activate the leash so as to be able to drag Zukina with them the Sai-jin cupped her hands around her mouth. "Down here!" she yelled.

Avo and Kado turned at the sound of the voice, eyes going wide as they saw the group. Nail cursed under his breath, Storm froze, finger just above the ring, eyes going wide, Eve turned and stared at Zukina, Xeno and Everfrost froze in place. But Tao reacted, and reacted faster than the Imperials. He didn't even spare the Sai-jin a glance, bringing his hands up in front of his face, fingers spread. "Solar Flare!" he cried.

"Go!" he ordered, gabbing hold of Eve and Everfrost's arms and taking off. Nail grabbed Xeno's arm and followed, Rain right behind them. Storm activated the leash between the ring and collar and then took off as well, dragging Zukina along behind her. By the time the glare faded they were five blocks away and around three corners. "We're not far from Ferri's store, we'll head there." Tao said, rounding another corner.

The Human's eyes narrowed a second later as he felt multiple power levels in pursuit. Not just Avo and Kado's levels but nearly a dozen others as well. The shadows that had been assigned to them had apparently decided it was time to act. _"This could be bad. If we have to fight the Imperials_ and_ the locals we could be in serious trouble."_ He wished, now, he hadn't been quite so busy working with Ferri getting his new ship design completed. If he'd spoken to Ludic and Ridic sooner he would have had more warning about this, more time to prepare. He could have kept the others off the street. Found some way of keeping Zukina out of trouble.

He made a sharp right turn then, shoving a door out of his way as he charged inside. He gave Eve and Everfrost a light toss into the room then turned and held the door for Nail. "Rain's coming but Storm's falling behind dragging Zukina after her." the Namek said.

"What's going on?" Ferri asked, darting out from behind her counter.

"Imperials." replied Tao as Rain charged into the room.

Ferri's eyes narrowed and she darted off through a door behind the counter. By the time she was back Storm had just rounded the corner at the end of the block and Tao could see how Zukina was slowing the Wathor down. The Sai-jin was trying to fly in the opposite direction. While not nearly strong enough to overwhelm Storm the drag was slowing her down considerably. The Human hurried out, grabbed the Sai-jin by the arm, and then rushed back into the building dragging both her and Storm after him.

Once they were all inside Ferri slammed the door shut, locked it, flipped the sign over to closed, and then slammed some sort of metal device onto the door. The device began to hum and glow a faint blue a moment later and the woman sighed and landed. "That should keep them away for a while." she said. "Holographic image inducer, makes everything along this wall look like solid wall. Also got some minor ki masking ability, good for confusing scouters better than senses but it should suffice." She turned and looked at Tao and the group he was with. She'd met them all over the last few weeks and they were just as ragtag looking now as they had been last time. "Any Enforcers out there?" she asked.

Tao nodded. "We were already being shadowed by some when Avo and Kado decided to drop by."

Ferri's eyes widened at learning who had been chasing them, but it was Storm who spoke up next. "And then this one..." the Wathor gave the leash attached to her hand a hard yank that nearly pulled Zukina off of her feet and made her stumble and fall to her knees. "Went and yelled at them to get their attention, or we could have gotten away without being seen." She glared at the Sai-jin and the Sai-jin glared right back as she climbed back to her feet. "Do you have death wish or something?"

"I'd rather be dead than owned by you. So long as I get to see them kill you first, I don't care."

"Yeah, well, thanks a lot." said Eve angrily, trying to work a cramp out of her shoulder from having been dragged by her arm at such high speeds. "I'd rather _not_ be dead, if you don't mind."

Zukina blinked and turned to look at her. She'd never heard Eve angry before. "I didn't..."

"Think, yeah, I know." the Nezorf said. "Didn't I just say a few hours ago not to do anything stupid? Yelling at two Super Elites so that they'll come and kill you, and everyone with you, qualifies as stupid."

"I didn't ask to be here!" Zukina snapped.

"None of us did!" countered Eve, and Zukina stared at her in shock. The Nezorf was actually yelling, she'd _never_ heard her yell. "Do you think I _like_ being on this Kai forsaken oven of a planet? Do you think I _wanted_ to be on the damned Talon in the first place? I didn't even want to be on _Geozan 7!_ But that's where they sent me because I was 'biologically suited' to the planet, never mind the fact that I'm a computer person and not very damn good at manual labor! But I've been _screwed_, we've _all_ been screwed, ever since we found that _Kai damned __**pod**_! We're just trying to make the best of it we can."

The silence that filled the room then was almost obnoxiously loud as Zukina glanced at the others and saw them all staring at the ground. They all looked as though pretending nothing had been said would mean it wasn't true. "What do you mean?" she asked at last. "How have you been screwed since finding the pod?"

"We found _Brolly_ in the ice fifty years after he was _supposed_ to be _dead_!" cried Eve. "You heard that scouter recording, saw those records. I was concerned as soon as I found out who was in that pod, before even finding any of that stuff! It's why I was willing to go looking. Finding all of that..."

"We were all dead as soon as we got on the Talon." said Everfrost. "I wouldn't be surprised if everyone on Geozan 7 who knows about Brolly is _already_ dead." Zukina just blinked and stared at him. "The Masters have gone to a lot of effort to cover up what happened on Tinto." he said, seeing her look. "You can't honestly think they'd just go 'Hey, thanks for finding the dead guy who's not actually dead for us. Run along home now.' We're loose ends in a cover up."

Storm sighed and turned her gaze up toward the ceiling. "It's why I went and took you." she said. "Under normal circumstances I wouldn't have. Too much red tape, not enough free time while on assignment, not enough room or resources while in space. But by the time I met you I'd already heard the scouter recording. I'd given up on livng more than a day after reaching Saiya so... I was just trying to have some fun with the time I had left."

"I... I didn't know..." Zukina said, staring at them all in shock. "I didn't..."

"Think, yeah." Rain said. "We're getting used to that." The Sai-jin scowled at her but Rain waved it off. "I'm not trying to be insulting. I'm just saying you're one of those types who reacts on instinct, not on thought. Good for a fighter but problematic everywhere else."

Zukina swallowed a lump in her throat and sat down on the floor. "Sorry..." she said softly, not sure what else she could say. Just a few minutes ago everything had seemed so clear to her but... now... It was all muddy, she wasn't sure what to think or feel, how to act. Everything she thought she knew about the people she was with had just suddenly changed and she wasn't sure what to make of it.

While they were all talking Ferri was peering out one of her windows. "Looks like the Enforcers know where you are, even if they're not sure how to get in." she said, closing the curtain. "We've got five of them standing outside, leaning against the wall across the street."

"Sorry to pull you into this." Tao said. "But your shop was the closest place I could think of."

"It's fine." she said, waving it off. "They wont cause me trouble for hiding you here even if The Cabal decides on termination. By keeping you away from the Imperials I'm stopping a fight from breaking out in the streets and that'll be good enough for them."

"Termination?" Eve asked as she sat down, pulled her legs up, wrapped her arms around them, and rested her forehead against her knees. "So now _everyone's_ trying to kill us? Great."

"We don't know that, yet." Ferri said. "I'll head out and talk to them, see if they've gotten any new orders." She flew off into the back room again then, apparently wanting to go out an alternate exit and not the front door, just in case.

"So... what do we do from here?" Rain asked. "With those two wandering around town can we even get back to the ship?"

"Nail could." said Xeno. "He can change his appearance so that they don't recognize him. The rest of us... we've all been seen."

"My ship is on Imperial record, anyway." said Tao. "Once they find it, if they haven't already, they'll know it's mine. We're stuck here for the time being and then... I don't know. Though I do think a return to the ship to collect some of our things is in order." He glanced over at Nail and the Namek nodded before adjusting his holographic image so that he now looked like a male Wathor. He knew what items Tao wanted recovered. The artifacts were all still on the ship.

Zukina mimicked Eve then, pulling her legs up against her chest, wrapping her arms around them, and resting her forehead against her knees. "I wonder how everyone on the Talon is doing?" she said, her voice muffled. "Yamm, Siddara, Spina, Artachok, Kabage, Inikuzu, Rycel, Luttece..."

"I... can find out." Eve said, bringing her head up again. "Once I have my computer, anyway. I can check the Imperial records for any mentions of the ship and crew. It's been... long enough now, they should have been able to file their report on the attack." Zukina looked up as well and smiled faintly, happy that Eve was still talking to her. "I'm sorry for snapping at you." the Nezorf said a moment later.

Zukina shook her head. "No, it's ok." she said. "I can't believe I'm saying this but... I deserved it. I really didn't think it through. I just... wanted to get payback on Storm I didn't..." She shook her head. "I still wouldn't mind seeing her dead but... You and Xeno and Everfrost have been nice to me, I don't want you guys hurt."

"Thanks." Eve said, smiling. "I hope this means no more stupid stuff?"

Zukina laughed. "What was it you said? Go with the flow? Control the situation instead of fighting it?"

"Hey, I'm here and alive instead of on Saiya and dead, right?"

"I guess... I can apologize, too." Storm said, sitting down beside Zukina. "Never thought I would, though."

The Sai-jin blinked and looked over at the Wathor. "What...?"

Storm shrugged. "Like I said, I really only took you because of the situation I was in. Of course, it put you into the same boat as me." She sighed and turned her gaze to look at the Sai-jin. "I'm not going to apologize for being me or for acting like the Wathor I am, that'd be like you apologizing for being a Sai-jin. But... I do apologize for dragging you into our mess."

The Sai-jin blinked again, not really sure what to make of that. "I... thanks..." she said. "This... might be pushing my luck but... does this mean...?"

Storm laughed. "Hand cramps, remember?" she asked, grinning. Zukina tried to scowl, but couldn't help it and laughed too. "I'll ease up some, though." Storm said as she switched off the leash again. "I'll admit, I was on a bit of a power trip the last few weeks. Not everyone gets to drag a Sai-jin around on a leash."

"So you weren't really interested in me as a Mate, then?" Zukina asked.

"Tough call on that one." replied Storm. "I hadn't intended to take you the first time I showed up at your room. Just have a little fun a few times during the trip to Saiya." She shrugged. "But after that first time I changed my mind." She suddenly laughed again. "It's your own fault, actually."

"What do you mean?"

"If you hadn't fought so long, resisted as long as you did, I wouldn't have done it." Zukina blinked at her in confusion. "Wathor's like conquests." Storm explained. "The more challenging, the better. If you'd just listened to me right from the start I'd have likely lost interest after my second visit, if not the first. I decided to take you then mainly because I wanted the thrill and the challenge of breaking you before we reached Saiya. Now... well, I don't intend to ever go back to Saiya so..." She shrugged again.

"Not going to 'break' me, then?" Zukina asked.

Storm noted the hopeful tone to the Sai-jin's voice and laughed again. "Don't know." she said. "Maybe. But not here and now, later, when things are more... stable. No reason to rush now, no deadline to meet. Don't think this gets you totally off the hook, though. You're still the only one around here I have to... play with."

Zukina sighed and rested her head back against the wall. "That much I can deal with, in moderation." she said. "It's so _not_ my thing but, at this point, I've gotten used to it. And it's definitely the lesser of two evils. So long as you don't go around flaunting it that I'm your 'property' I think we'll be fine."

"Sai-jin pride, eh?" Storm asked. "That why you yelled at Avo and Kado?"

Zukina nodded. "I'm a Sai-jin." she said. "I can't think of anything more... repulsive... than being owned."

Storm grinned. "Hence why I do so enjoy flaunting it." she said. "But, like I said before, I'll ease up some."

"How's it look?" Tao asked as Ferri flew back into the room from the back of the store.

"Better than I'd expected." she replied. "I made sure not to mention Avo and Kado, just to be careful, and it was a good thing I did. They all thought you were trying to ditch them, not Imperial soldiers. They completely overlooked the two of them. They asked me to tell you that 'they're here on official orders from The Cabal so not to go pulling any more stunts like that'. Which means the incident isn't even going to be reported to anyone."

Tao nodded. "That's good to know. Though it still leaves the matter of two Super Elite Imperial soldiers on the planet. We'll have to avoid them until my new ship is finished."

"You're all welcome to stay here." Ferri said. "I've got rooms down below you can use. You'll just have to help with building the ship as payment for them. I would suggest you tell the Enforcers about the change of living arrangements as well, so that they don't get upset."

Tao nodded and turned to Nail. "Let them know on your way back to the ship. Get all of our stuff and the ship deed. I may as well sell it now that we're through with it, so I can pay Ridic and Ludic. The sooner they're out of the equation, now that Avo and Kado are here, the better." The Namek nodded and left.

XXX

The two of them made their way along the street, both frowning. "This is nothing but a waste of time." one of them said as they neared another intersection. "We've been here for almost a week, now, and still _nothing_. I'm about ready to say he's already left."

"Do you really want to make that report?" asked the other. "_Before_ we have proof of it? Do you know what will happen if we say 'sorry, we didn't get there before he left' and then a day or two later someone else reports he's still here?"

"Bah. If we wait for proof he's not here we could be here for months!"

"Yeah, I know, but..."

"Down here!" a voice suddenly yelled. The two of them turned to see who'd shouted and their eyes widened. They only recognized one person in the group down the street but it was the one person they'd been searching for all week.

"Solar Flare!"

"GAH!" Avo cried, putting his hands over his eyes and trying to rub out the glare.

"Damn it, where are they!" Kado cried, his vision clearing enough to make out blury shapes now. He saw three people darting around a corner further down the road and took off. "Avo, come on!" he yelled back. His brother grumbled a little and then started running after him. By the time their vision cleared and they'd rounded the corner there was no sign of Tao or the group he'd been with. A few others were rushing down the street away from them but the two ignored them as they searched, looking down side roads and into shops.

"We've lost them!" Avo cried.

"Well, we know he's still here." said Kado. "And apparently not with just the Namek, if the Namek is even still with him. I think that yell was meant to get our attention."

"Our messenger?" Avo asked, looking down another road just on chance. There was a small group of people standing a few blocks away, leaning on a wall and talking to some short nude woman with green hair and pink skin, but nothing else.

"Maybe. Or just a ploy to make us take that Solar Flare full in the face." replied Kado. "I'm not sure who any of those others were. I think I saw a Wathor or two in the group but they were too far away for a good look."

"Well, we know he's here somewhere. Do we keep looking or do we go to one of the Bosses?"

"We look ourselves some more. But not here. We'll never find him inside the city now that he knows we're here. Let's check the ports. His ship must be docked at one of them. We get it and we've got him."

XXX

Zukina had to admit that Storm was keeping to her word, so far. The Wathor had expanded the range of the restraint system to seventy-five feet. It was enough that the two could almost be on opposite ends of the shop and still be in range. She'd also offered to let Zukina bunk with someone else, instead of forcing her to sleep in the same bed as her. The Sai-jin had quickly taken her up on the offer and was now sharing a room with Eve where she slept on the couch. Not as comfortable as a bed but a far better place to be than in the same bed as the Wathor. Last night had been the best night's sleep she'd gotten since she'd met the other woman.

At the moment, however, she wasn't sleeping. She was sitting on one of the wooden chairs in her and Eve's room while the Nezorf used her computer to hack into the Imperial Network again. She was going to look up the information on the Talon for her as promised the day before. Nail had come back with all of their things about three hours after leaving, and with word that Avo and Kado hadn't yet found the ship but were apparently searching through ship ports for it. They'd all figured as much but, as long as they remained inside the shop, there wouldn't be any need to worry about them.

"Alright, we're in." Eve said, cycling through data streams on her screen. "I'm searching for any reports that mention the Talon that were made since we left the ship. We should have everything they've sent out in a few minutes."

"Thanks again, Eve." Zukina said, watching the screen. She felt like she was starting to go soft, thanking the woman so much and not fighting as much with Storm, but she had to admit things were more pleasant now than they had been in weeks. And she was grateful to be getting information on the Talon and her friends on it. Yamm, Siddara, Spina, Artachok, Kabage, Inikuzu, Rycel, and Luttece had all been friends of hers for years. They'd worked together on one ship or another for the last decade. The only positive thing she could think of was that they were all maintenance staff, like her, which meant they had no reason to be in the cargo holds when the Xerudia went off. That gave them all a good chance of still being alive.

"No problem." Eve said. The computer beeped and a new screen popped up. "Ah, we've got our first file. Let's see... Emergency distress call notice. Looks like they didn't get word out about the attack until a few days after we'd left. Rescue ship marked as six weeks out so it should be there to pick them up in about a week or so, now." She scanned through the report more but there wasn't really much of value in it. She was just about to close it when she caught the notations at the bottom. "Huh?"

"What?" asked Zukina.

Eve blinked. "Damage and loss assessment data..." the Nezorf said. "There's a list of all crew and personnel lost in the attack... our names are here."

"What?" Zukina asked again, looking more closely at the screen. Sure enough her name was there along with Xeno's, Everfrost's, Eve's, Rain's, and Storm's. "They think... we're dead?"

"Apparently." said Eve. "I guess the Captain didn't realize we escaped on Tao's ship. This is... good news. If we're dead then the Empire isn't looking for us. Er, aside from them hunting for Nail and Tao, anyway. Much easier to disappear if we no longer exist... Anyway, are any of your friends on here?" she asked.

Zukina looked it over again and then shook her head. None of them were there and she was happy about that.

Eve closed that file and checked her search results some more to see what else she'd dug up. "Well, looks like they sent out a report every day or so." she said. "Looks like pretty basic stuff... Huh?"

"What is it?" asked Zukina, concerned.

"There's a unknown status indicator on the Talon." Eve said, pointing to the ship registry file. "That doesn't make sense, they've been in constant contact with the Empire... Hang on, I'll see if I can find some clue as to what this is about..." Eve dug through the files she'd found, going over the various reports and such. She was just about to open the eleventh report when she saw an audio file listing at the bottom of the search results. She decided to skip the reports and check it next.

"This is the Talon broadcasting an emergency distress call to anyone in the area." a voice said as the file started. They sounded completely terrified. "We are under attack from an unknown assailant. The man from the..." there was a sudden loud growl, and then nothing but static.

"The hell...?" Eve wondered. "Was that from when Tao attacked?"

"What's the transmission date?" asked Zukina, trying to read the file data on the screen. "It's... it's only six days old." she said.

"No more reports were sent out following that transmission, either." Eve said. "No wonder the status is listed as unknown. Hang on a second, I'm going to see if there's any hidden audio." She quickly copied the file off the network onto her computer and then ran it through a basic filtration system to enhance the background sounds and tone down the voice. It only took a moment to process and then she played it back again. There were no other voices but they could hear the basic sounds of battle. "Well, that's no help." she said, frowning. "Still, who would attack them?"

Zukina just sat there, staring at the screen, playing the message over in her head. "The man from the what?" she asked after a moment. Apparently the man in question was from somewhere important. Somewhere specific that the location would be of importance to those receiving the... Suddenly her eyes widened. "The cryostasis chamber!" she cried.

"What?" Eve asked.

"The cryostasis chamber!" Zukina repeated. "The Talon lost power right as we were leaving, remember? The cryostasis chamber got its power from the ship. Internal back-up power is only good for about 750 hours! That's just over 31 days. Once the power runs low it goes into Auto Thaw and tries to revive who or whatever is inside!"

Eve's eyes widened as she looked at the transmission date again and ran it backwards in her mind. 31 days before was when Tao had attacked. "Then... that means that... Brolly was the one attacking them... Zukina, run upstairs and get everyone."

The Sai-jin nodded and hurried out of the room. While she was off doing that Eve dove back into the Imperial Network again and hacked directly into the ComNet. She wanted to see if she could locate any other transmissions from the Talon, anything that hadn't been filed in the incident log for the ship. Personal communications from scouters, for instance, might slip notice. She also wanted to see if she could track down any SOS beacon broadcasts from escape pods. It was nearly twenty minutes before Zukina returned, the others right behind her.

"What's this you've found?" Storm asked. "Zukina's not exactly being entirely coherent."

"Brolly's awake." answered Eve. "And apparently he's taken over the Talon."

"Say what?"

Eve played the last transmission from the Talon back for them. "And according to Zukina." she began, after the transmission ended. "Back-up power for the cryostasis chamber expires after about 31 days. 31 days passed between us leaving the ship and the date of this transmission. It also fits with what the person in the transmission said..."

"'The man from the' would be 'the man from the cryostasis chamber.'" said Everfrost, nodding.

"But... why take over the ship?" Nail asked.

"Hard to say." said Tao. "He was, what, six on Tinto? His mentality wouldn't be any more than that, even now. He likely slept during his 18 year trip. Then he was frozen on Geozan 7 for about 35 years. After 25 years in cryostasis cellular damage can begin, so he may even have brain damage from the length of his freezing."

"On top of the possible mental instability caused by the Constant Zenkai he has." said Eve, remembering Gero's report on Brolly and Kakkarotto. "He may not have taken over the ship... he might have just attacked everyone on instinct. Or maybe he's still trying to act on whatever Bardock told him to do 53 years ago." She sighed. "Sorry, Zukina." she said.

The Sai-jin shook her head. "It's ok." she said. "I just wish I knew if they were alive or dead... I guess we'll find out when the rescue ship gets there." She sighed then as well. "I can't believe... I actually have a reason to be _happy_ about being dragged along with you guys... if I hadn't been then I could be dead right now."

"Oh, right." Eve said, turning to face the others again, Zukina's comment reminding her. "We're all officially dead. The Captain of the Talon listed us all as lost in Tao's attack."

"Good news for us." said Rain. "If we're dead then we can't be wanted."

"Yeah, but we can't get access to any of our money, either." Storm said, frowning. "Our accounts are all closed. Damn it, I had almost six thousand saved up."

"Broke is better than dead." Everfrost said.

"He's..." started Eve, but her computer started beeping and interrupted her.

"What is it?" asked Zukina.

"I've got it scanning the ComNet records for anything that matches a few variables I set." replied the Nezorf. "Trying to track down some more information related to the Talon and the attack." She brought up the notice message and stared at it for a moment, shocked. "But that's not what it's found..."

"What did it find?" Xeno asked.

"Not entirely sure yet. But apparently I'm not the only one hacking the Imperial Network. Someone's embedded a file directly into the network code."

"In the network code?" asked Storm. "That's possible? And why would someone embed a file into the network?"

"Oh, it's definitely possible." replied Eve. "It was my primary means of communication with people when I was working freelance. Embedded files are untraceable, unlogged, and typically undetectable. As far as the servers are concerned they don't exist at all so you need to be scanning the base code, like I've been doing, to find them, unless you're pointed to it by the person who put it there. Anyone who wants to send a message in secret over the open network does it by embedding the file into the network. I'm not sure why I picked this one up, though... it doesn't match any of my Talon related search tags. Let's see what triggered the detect..." she said, typing in a few things.

The image on the screen shifted and a small window came up. "It's a..." she blinked. "No way."

"What? Come on, you have to explain these things for the rest of us." Xeno said.

"Right, sorry. The detection trigger was Slug's name."

"You've found him?" Nail asked.

"No, nothing like that. But whatever this file is it's either meant for him or was planted here by him." answered Eve. "Give me a second, let's see what we're dealing with here..." She brought up a few new windows and began going over all the data she could gather on the file trying to determine type, encoding, encryption, creation date, origins, and so forth. "It's only an hour old. Well, let's see... it's a video file, an L6V file to be exact, but it uses a non-standard encryption. It seems to be based on the DWELO encryption codec. I should be able to decode and play it with a few tweaks..."

It took her a few moments but then the screen shimmered and a face appeared. Orange skin, pink eyes, white hair. The individual was obviously a male Wathor. All that could be seen was the neck up, though it looked like he might have been wearing battle armor. The video was pixilated and the audio distorted but it was all understandable. "Lord Slug, Cyclone reporting on the Leberion situation. The reports from the system team have been confirmed, Valor is no longer in power on the planet. The entire city of Defiance is no longer present. All indications are that the Battle Droids are no more. We can resume operations as soon as you give the order. Cyclone out."

"Leberion... that sounds familiar..." said Tao.

"I know of it." Rain said. "It's a major resistance world these days. Storm and I were there ten years ago when Gero sent a team to study the planet. We're one of the few races in the Empire that can breathe the air there."

"Hang on, I'll do a quick cross check." Eve said. A few seconds later she was looking at a new stream of data. "Hmm, it looks like Mistress 18 was recently sent to the planet to wipe out the local Resistance forces. That was about a month ago, now."

"She must have been the one that took this Valor person out of power." mused Storm.

"And left the world open to attack by Slug's forces in the process, it would seem." said Nail. "This Leberion seems a good place to start our search for Slug at any rate. I doubt he'll be there personally but..."

"It should be possible to question his troops as to his location." agreed Tao. "And I'm interested in these 'operations' that were mentioned. I don't remember coming across the planet during any of my search for the Ancient's artifacts so if it's not related to them then what is Slug's interest in the planet?"

XXX

"Ha! Home run!" Yamcha called as he dropped the mallet. Krillin had smacked the little bug four days ago and now he'd just done the same. He was finally done with all of the pre-training.

"Excellent, excellent!" North Kai said, emerging from his house. "Well then, now that everyone has moved beyond the pre-training I think it's time we get down to the real meat of my training." He'd had all of those training with Chaotzu also training to learn the Kaioken, though so far, none had yet succeeded. North Kai was not surprised though. Chaotzu had mastered the skill faster than any of his other students ever had but it had still taken the little guy eight months to learn it, and they'd not even been at it a month yet.

"What do you mean?" Mitsuki asked, working a cramp out of her arm. She and Chaotzu had just finished another 'spar' in which she had, once again, gotten her ass kicked. They all had. Tien was still laying on the ground catching his breath and Krillin had fallen asleep from his exhaustion. "I thought we already were doing the main training?"

"Well, in a manner of speaking." said the short Kai. "Hard training such as you've been doing with Chaotzu is key, as is learning the Kaioken. However, I have other skills I wish to impart to as many of you as possible. We will take a break from direct training for a week, give all of your bodies time to recover, and work on a few techniques of mine that I think you shall find quite valuable."

XXX

"That's Xentron?" Pan asked, watching the planet nearing on her screen. It looked like a big ball of dust.

"It's almost entirely desert." said 17. "Not a single ocean, either. Just a scattering of lakes. The largest one is only three hundred miles across. Like I said, it's pretty much a worthless rock as far as resources go. The only good thing it has going for it is the standard composition of the atmosphere."

"So, where are we going to land?" asked Bra. She was the one sitting at the ship controls and had insisted on landing the ship. Now that she wasn't a part of the Empire anymore she knew she had to learn to do all this stuff perfectly on her own.

"Xentron city is the largest gathering on the planet, right at the north pole." said 17. "Set us down about fifteen miles beyond the edge of the city. That should be far enough to keep anyone from stumbling onto the ship. We can burry it in sand to help hide it, too. We'll just have to make sure all of the vents and intakes are sealed first or we'll clog the systems."

"Scanning surface at recommended area for a good landing location." Bra reported as she set to work. "Videl, what are the power readings down there?"

"High." the woman replied, frowning. "The system just decided to ignore everything below five million in order to reduce the work load and I'm _still_ getting thirty-seven power readings."

"Thirty-seven!" Pan asked in shock.

Videl nodded. "Six of them are in the city at the north pole." she said. "Including the highest three readings."

"What are they?" asked Pan.

"Between seventeen and eighteen million." replied Videl.

"What!" Bra asked, turning from her controls. "Over seventeen million! But... that's..."

"I'm not all that surprised." said 18 as she walked onto the bridge. "People with high power levels really only have three options. Join the Empire, hide from the Empire, or fight the Empire. Not everyone out there with a high power is going to join the Empire or fight against it. Those that don't fight wont die."

"18 and I have encountered high powers before while on missions." 17 said. "Higher than this, even. They're rare and not often gathered in groups like this, but they're out there."

"Slug's in this range somewhere, too." said 18. "Last I heard he was around fifteen million and that was a few years back. Anyway, what's the ETA on our landing?"

"Oh, right." Bra said, turning back to her console. "Let's see... Alright, this spot looks good. Landing coordinates are locked, beginning descent. We'll be on the surface in twelve minutes."

"We still clear on the sensors?" 17 asked.

Pan nodded. "All screens read clear, they've not picked us up. Vegeta's got some nice toys on this thing."

"Perks of being the King." 18 said dryly. "What's our plan for once we're on the surface, anyway? We can't just hide out forever. That sort of tactic might be viable for Slug but I can't train and get stronger. The power I've got now is all I've got. If we take too long before going back to Saiya then Vegeta will have me too far outclassed to beat."

"You're not the only one on this ship who can fight." Bra said as she fought to keep the ship steady and stable as it plunged through the atmosphere of Xentron.

"I'm the only one here who can fight Vegeta when he's at full strength."

"For now."

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

"It means what it means. Now let me focus, unless you want me to land us on our roof."

18 grinned but stayed quiet so Bra could focus on landing. The Hybrid had stayed with her for the entire five days it had taken her nano-bots to repair the damage she'd done to her body in her fight with Vegeta. During that time they'd talked about just about everything, though Marron most of all. 18 now had a nearly full account of everything her daughter and Bra had done together on Saiya. The only part Bra had omitted any details on had been their final meeting, though the Cyborg had a few ideas as to what had happened. She now found herself thinking of Bra almost as a second daughter. Having her, Pan, Videl, and Faith along had definitely bolstered her spirits during the trip, following her defeat on Saiya.

It just made 17 complain about too much estrogen in the air.

A few moments later the ship rocked gently as they touched down on the surface. "Landing complete." Bra said, grinning.

"And not on our roof, very nicely done." said 18. The Hybrid stuck her tongue out at the Cyborg as she powered down the ship. "So, as I was saying, what do we do from here?"

"Well, first we need disguises for all of you." Videl said. "I'm the least likely to be recognized while still having the speed to make it to the city and back relatively quickly, so I'll head in to get the supplies for that. After that... I'm not sure."

"We need supplies for the ship." 17 said. "We weren't fully stocked when we left Saiya, there's barely anything in the pantry at all now. We've only got four mouths to feed so, even if two of them are Sai-jin, it shouldn't cost us too much to fill the pantry up. Beyond that I'm not sure, either. I'd rather not just rush right back to Saiya. We don't have the edge of 18's transformation being a surprise anymore. Plus nothing says Kakkarotto and Gohan will just stay back next time. Vegeta and 18 have had their fight."

"We don't have to fight him outright." Pan said, turning in her chair. "Laying in wait to get stronger may not be an option for you but you can wait out a good opportunity to hit him without having to fight him."

"Attack him in his ship, you mean?" 18 asked. "I'd thought of that but how often does he ever actually leave Saiya? I think the only time he's been off the planet in the last four decades was when he went to Earth to meet Kakkarotto for the first time. The only reason he even has any ships of his own is because he's the King and leader of the Masters. The only real use they get is when he loans them out to other people, like when Gohan and Kakkarotto took one to Kurokokun to fight Buu."

"I'm sure we could figure out some way of getting him off Saiya." Bra said. "Or maybe getting everyone _else_ off of Saiya."

"And then blast the planet?" Videl asked. "Isn't that a bit of an overkill?"

"Overkill is what happened on Gorneo." said Pan. "Blasting Saiya when Vegeta's the only one there is just desperation."

"Not desperation, just an idea." said Bra.

"Well, you guys keep planning, I'll go get the stuff." Videl said as she got to her feet. "I shouldn't be more than a few hours." She waved to them as she left.

"When you said 'for now' earlier, what did you mean?" 18 asked Bra.

"Just that I don't plan to sit on my ass all day out here." Bra answered, getting to her feet. "I'm going to train, as hard and as much as I can. I have a promise to keep and there's no way I can do that without getting stronger." She turned her gaze to Pan. "And I don't see any reason not to start now, if you're up for it."

Pan grinned. "Sure." The two Hybrids headed outside of the ship to spar so that they wouldn't damage it, 17 reminding them to keep their powers down so as not to draw anyone to them. He, 18, and Faith sat in the shade created by the ship, leaning against one of its landing legs, and watched the two of them practice for the next five hours as they waited for Videl to return. The two teens were both nearly exhausted when Videl finally returned carrying a bag full of her purchases. As she landed near the ship the two Hybrids finally called it quits and joined them all in the shade.

"So, what have we got to work with?" Bra asked.

"A fair bit." Videl replied, pulling out case after case of Capsules. "We've got wigs, hair dye, color changing contacts, and a wide variety of clothes to choose from."

"Alright everyone, grab some stuff and get disguised." said Bra. "If we're going to figure out where to go from here, and stock up on supplies for our ship, we need to see what the city has to offer us." Everyone nodded, grabbed some of the Capsule cases, and made their way back onto the ship. Faith was the only one among them who didn't need a disguise at all so she went to the bridge and kept an eye on the monitors for any sign of someone approaching the ship. Less than thirty minutes later the others started making their way back onto the bridge as well.

Bra was the first one out. She'd replaced her white t-shirt and blue jeans with a pair of red knee high boots, a red mini-skirt, a small red tube top shirt, and a pair of red gloves. All made of some sort of shiny material that was light, soft, and cool to the touch. Bra already felt ten degrees cooler in her new outfit than she had in her old clothes. She'd also put a pair of contacts in that made her eyes purple and she'd dyed her hair blond. The next back out was 18. She'd replaced her body suit with a black tank top, a sleeveless denim vest, a pair of cut-off knee length denim shorts, and red sandals. She had in contacts that made her eyes black and she'd pulled on a black wig that flowed down to her waist as well.

Pan came out next in a pair of torn blue jeans, a short red shirt, and sandals. Her eyes were now gray and her hair dyed purple. 17 had opted for a white tank top, an open light blue jacket, cut-off blue jeans, and a pair of white sneakers. His eyes were now brown and his hair was dyed red. The last one back out was Videl and she was still fidgeting with her short blue tank top and tight black spandex shorts. Her eyes were green and she'd pulled on a green wig that reached down to about the middle of her back.

"Well, if anyone bothers to look closely they might recognize you." Faith said. "But only if they're trying to, I'd expect."

"Good enough for me." Bra said. "Let's get the ship hidden and then get into town before it gets dark out."

XXX

The twin suns were still up above the horizon line when they'd reached the city limits, but not by much. They'd only had two hours to explore the city. It wasn't much time to explore a city the size of Xentron City but they had all agreed that they should get indoors by nightfall. They didn't want to push their luck with the locals any more than needed. Granted, few of them were strong enough to be an actual threat to any of them at full power, save Faith, but any commotion they caused could find its way back to Saiya. They wanted to deal with Vegeta on their terms, not his.

"The question is, where do we stay?" Pan asked, scowling at another 'hotel' they were walking past, not even bothering to enter. So far all five that they had seen had not looked particularly inviting.

"Hey blondie, why don't you ditch those losers and come spend the night with me!" one of the men outside the hotel entrance called.

Pan's eyes narrowed as she glanced back at them and scowled, but Bra placed a hand on her shoulder and shook her head. "It's fine." she said. "Better than fine, actually. It means they don't recognize me."

Pan turned to look forward again but continued to scowl. She came to a stop then and turned her head back toward the hotel again, convinced she couldn't have seen what she had in the corner of her eye. But she had. They were right there, walking into the hotel. Turning back to the others she hurried up to them again and spoke quietly. "We may have a problem." she said.

"What?" asked her mother, glancing over to her.

"I just saw Avo and Kado going into that hotel."

18 froze then and Bra nearly walked into her. "Are you sure?"

"Positive. I'd recognize those two anywhere."

"But... how'd they find us so fast?" asked Bra.

"I doubt they did." said 17, glancing back at the hotel now as well, but the pair was already inside. "There's no way we were followed and no way they could have been directed here so fast. They must have already been here for some other reason. We'll need to be careful while on the streets. These disguises may work for the average person but they dealt directly with Vegeta for too long not to recognize us on sight, even like this."

"We could get rid of them." said 18. "Let slip somewhere that they're Imperial soldiers."

"Too risky." said Pan. "They might get suspicious as to why we know what they are. Better to just avoid them. Come on, it's getting cold out now that the suns are down, I want to find a room."


	42. Convergence

_Chapter Forty-two - Convergence_

"This is the Imperial cruiser Delta Seven calling the transport Talon, do you read?" the CommsOfficer said into his microphone for the tenth time since the Delta Seven got within sight of the Talon. As before, there was no response from the other ship.

"Give it a rest, they must have lost ComNet ability." the Captain said to the man before turning to another station. "Destiny, are we picking up any power level readings on the ship?" he asked.

"Just two." came the woman's reply. "One of 200 and another of 3,118. The lower reading is on the bridge, the higher one somewhere near the center of the ship."

"200?" the Captain asked, raising an eyebrow. The Talon was a Sai-jin owned and crewed ship. There wasn't a single living Sai-jin in the entire universe with a power that low. There hadn't even been one born with a power that low for decades. "Is the level stable?" he asked.

"Aye, sir." she replied, checking her screen. "Both levels are stable."

The Captain pursed his lips in thought. It was still possible the lower level was an injured person, just one that wasn't in any danger of death. Ki suppression wasn't exactly a common ability among the Sai-jins, they tended to prefer to remain at full strength at all times. Of course, it could be the attacker, or one of them, and if it was then they were most definitely suppressed. "Bring us up along side the Talon, engage the docking clamps, and extend the docking bridge. Have medical standing by just in case. We don't know if one or both of these levels is a threat so send in Strike Team 5 first to secure the ship. We'll make our entry at the bridge air lock."

"Aye, sir." Destiny said, before sending out the orders. Fifteen minutes later the Delta Seven was 'parked' alongside the Talon, secured in place, and had its docking bridge linking the two ships. Strike Team 5 was already half way across the thirty foot expanse of the bridge. Seven men ranging in power from 70,123 to 72,886.

"Strike Team 5 reports that they've just opened the hatch onto the Talon and are now boarding." the CommsOfficer reported.

The Captain nodded and leaned back into his chair. When they'd first gotten their dispatch orders, directly from Dr. Gero himself, to come out and tow the Talon back to Saiya, it had seemed like a fairly easy job. The Talon's constant progress reports on their repairs had made it seem even easier. But then that odd transmission had come two weeks ago. Since then there had been no contact with the ship at all and the easy mission had become a confusing, and possibly dangerous, mess. The Talon hadn't been able to identify her original attackers but the Captain was willing to bet the second attack had been the same people.

'The man from the' was likely 'the man from the last attack', or something to a similar effect. Apparently not satisfied with the Talon's survival they'd returned to finish the ship off. Not unheard of, especially out in the fringes of the galaxy. He didn't like it, though. It put him and his crew in danger. Granted, he was fairly confident they could handle a group of pirates if it came down to it, but he wasn't convinced they could do it without anyone being killed. Hence why he was being so cautious, especially since he found the two remaining power readings to be suspicious.

"Sir!" the CommsOfficer cried, turning to look back. "Strike Team 5 has just made contact with the individual on the bridge and are in the process of retreating, two of the team are dead from a single energy blast."

"Power reading!" the Captain ordered.

"Checking." the woman at the scanner console said. "No reading!" she called in shock. "I'm getting an error message!"

_"What? But the Delta Seven's scanners are good up to ten million!"_ the Captain thought in shock.

"Intruder on the docking bridge!" someone yelled over the ship's ComSystem. "Nothing seems to faze him!"

"Blow the bridge!" the Captain ordered. "Disconnect the docking cla..." the rest of his order was drowned out by a sudden explosion, one far too loud to have been the bridge being blown.

"Intruder on the ship!" came a new cry through the ComSystem.

The Captain slammed his hand down onto the controls on his arm rest. "This is the Captain, all hands abandon ship. I repeat, all hands, abandon ship!" Taking his hand off the controls he turned to another of the bridge crew. "Vyne, arm the self-destruct, set it for five minutes."

"Aye, Captain." the man said.

The Captain turned back to the CommsOfficer then. "Priority alert message, area broadcast, all channels, and direct link it to Saiya. Unknown attacker in the area, Talon lost, Delta Seven detonating. Then cut the area broadcast and feed the direct link in with my scouter's transmitter."

"Aye, Captain." he replied.

With that taken care of the Captain climbed to his feet and made for the exit off the bridge. "Once you've all finished, get to the escape pods and get out of here." he ordered. "I'll see what I can do to stall this guy." And with that he walked out the door and off the bridge. With the scouter direct linked to the priority transmission to Saiya anything he or the intruder said would be included. At the very least it might help stop another ship walking into another trap like this one. As he made his way through the halls toward the sounds of the screaming and explosions he heard the mechanical voice sound over the ComSystem announcing four minutes until self-destruct. He pulled to a stop ten seconds later as, rounding a corner, he saw the intruder making his way toward him. He was covered in blood, as was the hall.

_"He's definitely _not_ a pirate."_ the Captain thought. Pirates were after profit, there was no profit in massacring the entire ship. "What do you want?" he asked.

"Are you the Captain here?"

"I am."

"Take me to Saiya."

The Captain blinked. _"He... wants to go to Saiya?"_ he thought. _"Why does he..."_

"Take me to Kakkarotto!" he demanded, scowling.

"Ka-Kakkarotto? You want... you want to speak to Master Kakkarotto?"

The man grinned. "No. I want to kill him! Take me!"

The Captain blinked in shock. _"Kill him...? A Resistance fighter, maybe? And with a power over ten million he's definitely capable of killing an untransformed Kakkarotto... though Saiya will know he's coming now, assuming he doesn't stay on the ship long enough to be killed in the self-destruct."_

"Take me!" he demanded.

"Sorry, I can't do that." the Captain said. The mechanical voice then announced three minutes until self-destruct.

The man looked up at the ceiling, where the voice had come from, and scowled. Suddenly he raised an arm and pointed it toward the Captain. "Then I find someone who will and I don't need you." he said. The last thing the Captain saw was a bright green light filling his vision. Brolly lowered his hand and continued on through the ship. He had to get to the bridge. If no one would take him to Saiya then he'd try and fly this thing himself. He reached the bridge thirty seconds later without encountering a single other person, but on the bridge he found four crewmen still at their posts and grinned.

"Take me to Saiya!" he demanded, drawing their attention to him. "Take me there or I kill you all!" The closest crewman, a man with yellow skin, blue eyes, and pink hair, climbed out of his chair and lunged at him but Brolly just side stepped and then jammed an elbow into his neck, snapping it. "Weaklings!" he growled, kicking the body off the bridge. One of those left got up and started to run but Brolly fired a blast of energy at him and incinerated him. "Now, we go or you die." he said, turning his gaze back to the two left.

The woman swallowed and turned to look at the other person on the bridge. "Vyne..." Destiny began. "Can you... shut off the... self-destruct?"

He nodded, brushed some of his long dark green hair out of his face, then bent over his console. A moment later the warning sirens ceased and the voice, in the midst of announcing one minute remaining until self-destruct, cut off. "Self-destruct off." Vyne said, voice shaking.

Destiny glanced back at their intruder and swallowed again. He didn't seem... entirely stable. But she liked her chances at living through this better doing what he said then not. "Ha-have a seat." she said.

"You taking me to Saiya?" he asked. When she nodded he grinned and then sat down in the command chair. "How long?" he asked.

"About... two and a half months." she replied as she set in a course for Saiya.

XXX

"Sirs, we have an incoming priority alert message." the CommsOfficer on the bridge announced, turning to look back at the three men in charge of the ship and crew.

"Let's hear it." 13 said.

The CommsOfficer nodded and patched the message in through the speakers. "Attention all Imperial ships in the area. This is the Delta Seven on mission to recover the Talon. We are under attack by an unknown assailant. The Delta Seven is considered lost, Captain Salvago has ordered the self-destruct activated. I repeat, this is the..."

"Cut it." ordered 13. The CommsOfficer complied as the Android turned his attention to one of the other ship crew. "We're sure our targets are still on the surface?" he asked.

"Mistress Videl is, at least." the man said.

13 nodded. "Our current mission comes first. Tag the location of the Talon for now. If no one else has dealt with it by the time we leave we'll investigate before returning to Saiya. What's our landing ETA?"

"Landing ETA is twenty-one minutes." someone announced.

15 grinned. "I can't wait." he said, pulling a flask out of his pocket and taking a few swallows. "This is going to be fun." The flask had been one of the things he'd picked up from his quarters on Saiya. Along with several bottles of whisky. 13 felt it had been a pointless thing to do. They had inorganic bodies now, fully mechanical. Alcohol wouldn't have any effect. Their internal systems would just break it all down and convert it into operational power. But 15 said he wouldn't have felt right going into battle without his whisky, and insisted that not only could he still taste it but he could also feel his buzz returning. 13 figured it was all just in his head.

One of the other items the purple Android had taken from his quarters were the sunglasses he now wore. Unlike the alcohol they would actually be useful because they weren't actually sunglasses. While their new bodies came with some nifty visual abilities, like zoom and light correction, the glasses had other abilities. Night vision, infra red, x-ray vision, among some other useful features. 15 said he'd feel as bad going into battle without them as without his whisky and, in this instance, 13 had to admit there was some value to them.

"Just stick to the plan." 13 said, turning his eyes back to the screen again.

XXX

Eve sighed and rubbed her eyes to try and clear them a little. She hadn't found anything more on the Talon in the last six days, nor had she found anything more on Slug, despite constant searches. The message left by Cyclone for Slug was still there. Unchanged and un-removed. So she doubted the Namek had yet received it. Right now, though, her focus was on the Talon again. The rescue ship should be reaching it soon and she was hoping to get more information about it from them.

Zukina had spent the entire night and early morning sitting on the bed behind her and staring at the screen, waiting for any kind of word on the friends she'd left behind on the ship. She was gone, now. Storm had come in and pulled her off to head into the city for a little shopping. Supplies that they and Ferri needed. The Wathor hadn't been her normal forceful self, however. She'd been gentle in getting Zukina to come along with her, so Eve suspected the real purpose was merely to distract the Sai-jin for a while.

She had her fingers crossed, for Zukina's sake, that the Sai-jin's friends were ok. She wasn't holding her breath, though. If that transmission she'd found a week before was any indication, then everyone on the Talon was probably dead. She also felt bad for whoever was going to recover the Talon. She and Zukina had gotten to talking that morning about how much power Brolly could have. He'd been at one and a half million when he was six, 53 years ago. Under normal circumstances, and for any other race in the universe, they'd expect him to still be at one and a half million.

The situation with Brolly was anything but normal, however. Neither she nor Zukina were sure if the Sai-jin's Constant Zenkai would have continued to function while he was in cryostasis or not. Even if it hadn't, for Brolly to have been at one and a half million by the age of six, from a starting level of just over 15,000... Zukina estimated a minimum level of 12,000,000 for Brolly's base by the time he arrived on Geozan 7. A level that had the Sai-jin's mind reeling. Not even Master Gohan had broken the 10,000,000 mark at base, yet. If the Constant Zenkai effect had persisted after he was frozen Zukina said that he could be as strong as 40,000,000.

Eve didn't want to consider that possibility, though. Brolly was also a Super Sai-jin. A base of 40,000,000 would put his Super Sai-jin power up to 2,000,000,000. She wasn't sure how much power Masters Gohan or Kakkarotto had, no one was really since no scanner or scouter could go that high. However, official records that Eve had managed to hack out of Gero's computers on Saiya over the last few days said that Super Sai-jin was fifty times stronger than the Sai-jin's normal state (which was how they'd come to their estimate of Brolly's potential maximum level as a Super Sai-jin), and they also stated that the second level doubled that and the third increased that by another fifty percent.

Word was that Master Kakkarotto had obtained another transformation recently and Gero's records confirmed it, though they made no notations about its power yield. Still, she and Zukina figured his maximum to be somewhere in the one and half to two billion range. If the two of them really were equal in power... Eve didn't want to consider what would happen if Brolly's mind truly had become unstable over the last 53 years and he beat Master Kakkarotto in a fight. That was, of course, assuming he was a threat at all. If he was still following Bardock's orders things wouldn't be as bad. Either way, though, no one on any ship the Empire could send out to recover the Talon would have a chance against him.

She was just about to push her chair back from her desk and computer and head upstairs for a quick bite to eat when the computer beeped at her and a notice flashed up on the screen. A priority alert message had just gone out, area broadcast, and it had triggered a detect with her search parameters. She quickly brought up the transmission and had the computer play it back for her. This was quite possibly what she'd been waiting for.

"Attention all Imperial ships in the area. This is the Delta Seven on mission to recover the Talon. We are under attack by an unknown assailant. The Talon is considered lost, Captain Salvago has ordered the self-destruct activated. I repeat, this is the Delta Seven on mission to recover the Talon. We are under attack by an unknown..."

Eve cut the message off there and dove back into the Imperial Network. In less than two minutes she was inside the Delta Seven's computers and digging through its files. A clock was ticking up in the top left corner of her screen, counting down how much time she had to get what she was after before the ship, and its computers, were blown to kingdom come by the self-destruct. There was still over a minute left when she found what she was after. The sensor logs. Quickly pulling them up she went for the last power readings scanned from the Talon.

"Two levels?" she wondered. The lower one had to have been Brolly because, a moment later, it spiked up out of detection range. She made a quick notation of the other level, 3,118, to show to Zukina later. If it was one of her friends she might recognize the reading. She was just about to log out of the Delta Seven's computers and do some more digging in the network when the clock in the top left corner stopped. A quick check showed that the self-destruct had been terminated. Activating the internal sensors on the bridge she ran a power scan and got back two levels, one of 1,844 and one of 776, as well as an error reading. It could mean only one thing. Brolly had control of the ship.

Eve decided her snack would have to wait and she started checking through the network for any more information she could obtain.

XXX

On board the Talon the owner of the second power the Delta Seven had detected on the ship lay, curled up, hands over her head, and shaking in the darkness. She'd heard the sounds of fighting in the distance, knew that the rescue ship had finally come, but that there would be no rescue. The man had... decimated the entire crew. She doubted anyone on the other ship would be able to fight him. Finally, however, she moved her arms away from her ears and listened. She couldn't hear any more fighting. _"Is... is he gone? Did he... take the other ship and leave?"_ she wondered.

Uncurling as best as she could in the small space she was in she pushed open the cupboard door and slowly slipped out of it again. She'd been hiding in the small space for about two weeks, coming out only to grab food from the stores near-by. When she'd first woken up inside the Regen Tank it had taken her a moment to figure out where she was. Then she'd remembered the bridge and the bad news she'd given to the Captain. After getting out of the tank it had taken her a few minutes to realize something was wrong. There weren't any people around and there was always someone on duty at the tanks.

She'd not gone any further than the hall before discovering just _how_ wrong things were. There were five people dead just in the small expanse of hall she could see. She'd taken the next three hours to slowly, carefully, and systematically search the ship. The escape pods were all gone and the crew was all dead. The only person left had been the man she'd seen on the bridge of the ship, sleeping in the Captain's chair, covered in blood. She'd retreated then, down to the kitchens, and hidden there ever since.

Part of her was ashamed and disgusted with herself. She was a Sai-jin and yet, here she was, cowering in fear. But she wasn't a fighter, never had been. She'd never particularly cared for fighting. Her loves had always been space, mechanical work, and ships, thus why she'd worked so hard to get a maintenance posting on a space ship. So she also felt at least partly justified in hiding. After all, everyone else was already dead and gone by the time she realized anything was up. There really wasn't anything she could have done to help.

She made her way carefully to the bridge and found it empty. At least, of living people. The stench was terrible, worse here than anywhere else. Carefully picking her way through the sticky and bloody mess of the room she walked up to the ComNet terminal and stared at it in despair and horror. There was almost nothing of it left. Without the terminal she wouldn't be able to get a signal out to anyone. She wouldn't be able to call for help, to let anyone know she was still here, still alive. There was food enough on board to last her months. A year at least, she figured. But she didn't want to be trapped on this ship that long and nothing guaranteed that anyone would come looking without knowing she was there.

She shook herself then. "Get a hold of yourself, Luttece." she ordered herself. "It's not over yet. Fixing shit like this is your job, you can do this..." Scrunching up her nose against the smell she knelt down in front of the terminal and started trying to pry open an access hatch. If she was lucky there would still be enough left working inside that repairs would be doable. If she could scrounge up a miracle they wouldn't take too long, either.

XXX

Zukina hadn't really wanted to leave her and Eve's room. She wanted to be there when the Nezorf got any information on the Talon. But, as Storm was still being polite, she decided it best to go with her rather than resume the hostile tension that had been between them before. The Wathor had reduced the range of the restraint system again, down to just twenty feet for now, but merely as a precaution while they were out in the open. She hadn't turned the leash back on since they'd first gotten to Ferri's shop nearly a weak ago and, for that much at least, the Sai-jin was grateful.

"What all do we need to get?" she asked as they walked down one of the, rather busy, streets of the city. "And why us and not Nail? We're a bit more likely to be recognized than him with that image inducer."

"Nail's already out handling something else." Storm answered. "Tao wasn't sure when he'd be back and we're a lot less likely to be recognized by them than he is, plus I'm the strongest other than those two, so I volunteered to go."

"And I have to come along because of the restraint system."

"More or less." Storm replied. "I needed an extra pair of hands to carry some of the stuff anyway, not all of it can be capsulized. And, while you've not been nearly as much trouble as of late as you were originally..."

"Still don't trust me?"

Storm smirked. "Would you?"

"No, I suppose not." the Sai-jin replied. "So, what are we after?"

The Wathor brought up a small handheld computer and looked over the list of things. "We need two turbine coils, a V6LK power cell, five 250 gallon Capsules we can fill with water, a power drive control unit, a flight control computer, a Gravitonic Field Coil, and Tao wants us to see if we can find a decent Regen Tank, too."

"He expects us to find a Regen Tank simply up for sale?" Zukina asked, amused. "Seriously?"

"We're out in the fringes, Zukina. You can find just about anything on these planets on the black market."

"Regen Tanks are Class A restricted material." said Zukina. "The Empire doesn't just let them slip off the back of a truck."

"All scouter technology is Class A restricted as well." Storm said. "But Tao's new ship is coming with a scanner system built in, good up to fifty million, or so Ferri says. Not everyone who transports garbage material, old Regen Tanks, busted scanner systems, etc, to garbage worlds actually takes them all the way there. Some just dump them off on a random empty planet, others sell them to black market traders. Dangerous business, but highly profitable."

"And how do you know all of this?" Zukina asked as a rather large and imposing black haired and gray skinned man nearly ran into them as they crossed the intersection. She turned to glare after him and had to do a quick double take. _"Isn't that... nah, she wouldn't be out here, besides, the hair isn't right."_

Storm didn't notice any of this, however, as she answered the Sai-jin's question. "My father, the Captain of the Red Thunder, did a lot of black market trading during his day. Everything from Regen Tanks to Capsules to ComNet security by-pass jacks." Storm came to a stop then. "Here we go, Tremo Ship Supplies. Ferri said this is where we can get most of our stuff."

XXX

"I can't believe they were totally sold out of Capsules." Pan moaned, shifting the weight of the paper bag she was holding from her left hand to her right. "Damn, this stuff is heavy with my power down this low."

"I know the feeling." Bra said as she shifted the large bag she held as well. The two of them had bought several Compression Boxes full of food. Compression Boxes were basically bootleg Capsules. A few companies in the galaxy had attempted to replicate Capsule technology but none of them had fully succeeded. During the years where Capsules had been Class A restricted materials, when her father had used the profits from their sales to help fund the Empire, the Compression Boxes had come along. You could squeeze a lot of stuff into a Compression Box but the weight added up.

None of the bootleggers had figured out how Capsules could hold thousands of pounds of weight inside while still weighing only a few ounces themselves. Nor had anyone found a way to fit as much into a single box as a Capsule, or to make the size nearly as small. The two girls could have fit everything they had in both of their bags into one Capsule and not felt any weight from it at all. Groaning, Bra shifted hands again. She and Pan had their powers down to around ten thousand and, at that level, the weight they were carrying was seriously pulling on their arms.

Pan grunted as she suddenly walked into something hard and solid. Peering around the bag she blinked, finding herself staring at someone's abdomen. She tilted her head up, eyes going up over his rather muscular chest to his face. He was scowling down at her and the look unnerved her. "Uh... um, sorry." she said, taking a step back to walk around him. "I didn't mean to run into you, I didn't see you there." As she stepped around him she saw a small purple guy in a very hot looking yellow-green coat and oversized hat standing in front of Bra and smirking up at her. "Let's go..." Pan said, glancing over to Bra. The other girl was just as unnerved by the pair as her and nodded.

"Leaving so soon?" the purple one asked, turning his head a little to look her way. "I thought your parents taught you better manners than that." Bra glanced down at him but didn't say anything as she and Pan started walking away. Suddenly the little guy was standing in front of her again.

"Do you mind?" she asked, scowling. "I don't want any trouble, just let us go."

The little guy grinned. "Sure thing, Princess." he said. Both she and Pan froze then, eyes locked on the little purple man. "Though, how about you tell us where 17 and 18 are hiding, first?"


	43. Orders

_Chapter Forty-three - Orders_

"I... I... I... Uh, I don't know, er, what you're, um, talking about." Bra stammered, trying to regain her composure. Had her father sent these two? They'd only been on the planet for five days, how could word have possibly gotten back to her father and him have someone on the planet already? Or maybe they were just bounty hunters who'd already been on the planet? Had her father issued a bounty on 17 and 18? No... that didn't make any sense. There weren't any bounty hunters in the Empire that had enough power to fight against 17, let alone 18's new power.

"I think you have us confused with someone else." Pan said, her voice even.

"Oh, I don't think so." replied the little man, grinning. "The change in hair and eye color was a nice try but your faces are still the same. I've got a 100% match on you, Pan. Now, are you going to cooperate with us or not?" he asked, taking a swig from his flask.

"Go to hell." Bra said.

"Ooh, such language Princess. Very well then, if you wont take us to them we'll just have to bring them out to us."

Bra's eyes widened then as the little guy suddenly flew right at her. She dropped her bag with a loud thud and powered up, her light purple aura flaring up around her as she did. She blocked his punch with her arm, stinging pain shooting through it as she did. _"No way, he's stronger than me!?"_ she thought in shock. Hearing a loud crack beside her she turned and saw Pan dropped her bag as well and now her fist was against the large man's chest. She'd powered up to her maximum in base before attacking, but he hadn't even budged. _"But... I don't sense anything..."_ she thought.

Suddenly her eyes snapped wide in pain as a foot slammed into her stomach. She stumbled back and thrust an arm out firing off a blast of energy but the purple man suddenly vanished and the ki sped off to slam into a building across the street. It exploded with a resounding crack, blasting a hole in the wall of the structure as people started running, but she ignored them and turned to find out where he'd gone. As she did she just managed to dodge around a punch she saw coming at the last second and then countered with her own, but he deflected it with ease.

"You can't beat me, Princess." he said, grinning, before punching her in the face. The blow sent her sailing down the road and then through the hole her ki blast had made earlier.

Meanwhile Pan had slammed her foot into the side of the large man's head but that attack had had as little effect as her first. Floating back away from him, eyes wide in shock, she tried to think of something else to do. Transforming was always an option but she didn't want to blow her disguise, and a Super Sai-jin suddenly appearing on Xentron would let the entire Empire know where they were. She let out a gasp of shock, then, as the large man suddenly went on the offensive, a massive fist heading right for her head.

She slipped around it and then fired a blast of blue energy right into his face but, yet again, he was unfazed. _"What is this?"_ she wondered. _"I can't sense anything from him at all. How can someone with a power so..."_ Suddenly her eyes widened as an idea hit her, a very distressing one. _"He's a machine! An Android! Damn, that leaves me no choice!"_ She drifted back from him, clenched her hands into fists, and let out a yell as her aura flashed yellow. Her hair stood up on end and shifted to blue, to green, and then to yellow as the hair dye was destroyed by her sudden surge in power. Her eyes remained gray, however, as the special contacts she wore quickly adjusted to her new eye color.

She charged in at him again and pulled back her fist, but before she even got close enough to launch her own attack his arm snapped out, his fist cracked into her face, and she surged off down the street. Bra was just climbing back out of the hole she'd been knocked through when Pan slammed into her and drove her back inside. The two of them slammed into the wall at the back of the building and Pan climbed to her feet first, groaning. Bra did the same a few seconds later.

"You... transformed?"

Pan nodded. "And it's still not any help." she said. "I think we're in trouble, here."

Bra scowled and flashed gold as she transformed as well. "I'm not giving up that easy." she said, reaching a hand up to pull out her contacts. Pan watched her for a moment and then did the same herself. They were just an added hazard, now. "We have to get rid of these two before our fight draws 17 and 18 out into the open."

"Let's go." Pan said, shooting off out of the building again. Bra followed her out but both pulled up to a sudden stop once back on the street. The two men were gone but a group of four others now stood gathered around.

"Fighting is strictly prohibited inside the city." one of them said, stepping forward. "You are ordered to come with us at once."

"P-Princess!?"

XXX

Storm sighed as she saw just how large of a place Tremo Ship Supplies actually was. Apparently the store took up the entire interior of the large warehouse sized building it was inside of. They'd likely be hours just _finding_ all of the supplies they needed.

"We could split up." Zukina suggested, looking over the expanse of the room herself. When she didn't get a response from Storm she turned to look and found her frowning. "I'm not going to try and take off or get you guys into trouble." she said. "Even if you don't trust me yet you know I still want to know what Eve's found on the Talon. I can't get that information if I run off or cause you guys problems, now can I?"

Storm sighed. "I'm not turning off the restraint system, just the same. But I'll enlarge the field. What do you think, two hundred feet?"

Zukina glanced around the large warehouse again. "Maybe two fifty." she said. "I'd rather not get shocked by accident, thank-you."

Storm pursed her lips for a moment and eyed the Sai-jin up. She'd been a lot less trouble as of late, and hadn't fought her on _anything_, not even the few 'play dates' that she'd wanted, since the incident with Avo and Kado. She wasn't entirely sure what to make of it, it was a rather sudden change in attitude. Still, she didn't want to be here all day and, so long as the restraint system was on, it wasn't like Zukina could really go anywhere. "Alright." she said, touching the ring on her hand and adjusting the range, setting to two hundred and fifty feet. "But if you cause me any trouble I'm taking you back on the leash, got it?"

"Fine, fine." Zukina said, waving her off and starting off down one of the aisles.

Storm sighed and rubbed her temples. "I have _got_ to teach her some respect." she muttered, starting off down another aisle. She'd only gone two steps when a sudden explosion shook the building and nearly knocked her off of her feet. She turned around to find where Zukina was and saw the Sai-jin on her ass down the other aisle, and knew it wasn't her. "Zukina!" she yelled, hurrying toward the door again.

The Sai-jin muttered and climbed to her feet, rubbing her sore butt. "That wasn't me!" she yelled back.

"I know that!" Storm said, coming to a stop near the door. "But it could have been Avo and Kado, they might have followed us."

Zukina's eyes widened and she hurried over to stand beside Storm. From where she was she could see a large hole in the wall in the building across the street. Then, suddenly, something surged through the opening. She caught a glimpse of that gray man again before he suddenly vanished and the guys that had been shadowing her and Storm moved out toward the hole. "I don't think it's them." she said. "Still, maybe it best we leave and not get associated with whatever's happening."

Storm nodded. "Yeah, good idea." she said, opening the door. "No reason to give the locals any more reason to mistrust us." As Zukina followed the Wathor out of the building one of the four Enforcers spoke.

"Fighting is strictly prohibited inside the city. You are ordered to come with us at once."

The voice drew Zukina's attention and her eyes widened as she realized who was standing there. "P-Princess!?" she cried in shock.

"I should have known." the Enforcer said, turning to face Storm and Zukina. "They're with you, are they?"

"No." Storm said, eyeing up Zukina, who still looked utterly shocked, and then glancing over to the two blonde women. She didn't recognize either of them, herself. "I'm not sure who..."

"It's the Princess..." Zukina said, slowly. She was about to say more but a bright blue glow suddenly filled the streets and she looked up, along with the others, and her eyes widened even more. The gray man was up there about a hundred feet, along with a smaller purple guy, and they were charging a large ball of energy between the two of them.

"The hell...!?" Storm cried, seeing the attack.

"Shit, Pan!" Bra yelled, spying it as well. "We can't let them set that off in the city!"

"I'm on it!" she called, charging up into the sky toward it. She was only halfway there when the two moved away and then thrust their arms down firing off the attack. The energy ball was nearly eighty feet across and Pan's eyes widened as it surged down toward her. With a cry she thrust her arms out and caught it but it started driving her back down again. _"No way!"_ she thought in shock. In a flash of gold she transformed to the second level and let out a grunt of effort as she shoved the attack back up and off into space.

She turned her eyes from the deflected attack to the two machines in the air with her. The smaller one scowled and then looked down toward the ground, smirked, and shot off toward Bra. Pan was about to follow but the large one suddenly charged in at her and she had to focus on fighting it. _"There's just... no way!"_ she thought in disbelief, deflecting a kick aimed for her head and then kicking it in the stomach, forcing it back a few feet. _"It's at least as strong as me!"_

Meanwhile, Bra's eyes widened as the purple man charged her at high speed. _"I really should have trained more often before this."_ she thought, thrusting her arms up and firing a blast of yellow energy into the man's face. He just plowed right through it, though, and slammed his fist into her face causing her to stumble back. She lashed out with a punch but it dodged around it, faster than she could even see it move, and then kicked her in the head knocking her over. _"Damn it, he's toying with me!"_ she realized as she just barely rolled out of the way before being hit in the back with an energy blast.

"This is... incredible..." Storm said, eyes going wide, as she tried to follow the two fights as best as she could. The hair, the eyes, the auras... they had to be Super Sai-jins, but that didn't make any sense to her. The Enforcers had all pulled back several blocks but hadn't yet left. They were talking to someone, though, on some sort of communications system. The Wathor figured they were contacting this 'Cabal' she'd heard mentioned before. "Zu-Zukina... do you know who they are?" she asked, turning to the Sai-jin.

She nodded. "The one down here is the Princess." she said. "Mistress Bra. And... the one up there must be... Mistress Pan."

Storm's eyes widened in shock and she turned back to the fights. Pan and the one in the sky were apparently fighting on fairly even ground, the girl giving as good as she got. Bra, on the other hand, was getting kicked around like a rag doll. Completely unable to defend herself or counter attack. "Are... are you... sure?"

Zukina nodded. "I recognize the Princess. I thought I had earlier but her hair..." she shook her head. "It's definitely the Princess. And she called the other one Pan, so..."

"Look out!" Bra yelled, suddenly charging at them. The two had the air knocked out of them as she shoved them out of the way and took a blast of red energy to the back for her efforts. With a cry of pain she fell to the ground. Her aura sputtered for a moment but she held her transformation and, grimacing, climbed back to her feet. "You two should go." she said, panting. "Get out of here, get to safety."

Before Storm could say anything Bra shot back in at her opponent. As the girl took a hard kick to the side of the head that knocked her through a wall Storm turned to Zukina again. "I think... maybe we should go." she said.

Zukina was torn. Terrified by the power on display here, anything that could stand up to a _Super Sai-jin_ would tear right through her, but at the same time she wanted to know what was going on. Why were two of the Masters on Xentron? Who were they fighting against? Who could _possibly_ smack around Mistress Bra like the little guy was doing, or fight evenly with Mistress Pan? "I want to stay..." she said after a moment. "I want to see..."

"I know how you feel." Storm said. "Or at least, I've got an idea. But it's not a smart idea to stay here. We almost got wasted by a stray blast once, she may not be able to get in the way next time. And even if she does we're putting her at an even bigger disadvantage."

Zukina swallowed and then nodded. Storm was right, it was too dangerous to stay where there. "Just a few blocks, then?" she asked, starting off down the street.

"Yeah, alright." she replied. Truth was, she wanted to know what was going on too.

As the two of them pulled to a stop several blocks, and about three hundred feet, away and turned to watch the fight, another voice sounded behind them. "Do either of you know what's going on?"

XXX

"Tao, I think we've got a problem." Ferri said as her head came up from her work.

Tao turned from the circuit board he'd been working on and looked over at the other woman. "What is it?" he asked.

"This just isn't working." she said, holding up the item that she'd been working on. "It was a great idea but I just don't think the material can take it. I've got some stronger stuff but not nearly enough for what we need."

"What about using a composite of the two materials?" he asked. "A fifty-fifty mixture, perhaps?"

"Hmm, probably more sixty-forty." she mused, gazing at the material in her hand. "That might work. At the very least it'll give us more leeway than what we're getting with this stuff. You may not be able to get the system up to full spec in the end, though."

"I don't expect to need full spec for quite a while anyway." he said. "We can do the best we can now and upgrade when needed later."

"Alright, I'll head down stairs and get... by the Creator!" she cried, turning to look off at a wall. Tao followed her gaze as well, having felt the same thing as her. A massive power had just flared up and slammed into his senses. One far larger than anything normally on Xentron. Far larger than any power Tao had ever personally sensed, for that matter.

"Ferri, keep working. I'm going to go and investigate." he said, setting down his tools. "If this is more trouble I'd like to have some advance warning this time."

"Right." she said, leaving the room to get the stuff she needed. Meanwhile Tao made his way out the front door and found the shadows he'd had were missing. The Enforcers that had been overtly watching the shop for the last few days were nowhere to be seen. Obviously these new powers had drawn them in as well. To be expected, the natives got restless when anyone strong came by, especially when they were stronger than the members of The Cabal. As he lifted into the air over the buildings he saw a large ball of energy floating in the sky. And then it was surging down toward the city and a streak of yellow was coming up to meet it.

Tao pulled to a stop an instant later as the streak of yellow flashed and the larger power he was sensing shot up even higher, and then the energy ball was repelled. _"A Super Sai-jin?"_ he mused. _"No, second level, I recognize that aura. But who are they and who are they fighting? I sense only one other large power and it is on the ground."_ He shot off toward the area of the fight but, as he neared, he started making a wide arc around it. Both to avoid being noticed by the fighters and to bring himself closer to where he could sense Storm and Zukina. "Do either of you know what's going on?" he asked, descending to land behind them.

Storm turned at the sound of his voice but relaxed as soon as she saw who it was. "Not really." she said. "Zukina's convinced that it's Mistress Bra and Mistress Pan out there. No clue who they're fighting, though." She turned back to the fights, though all she'd been able to see of them since the start had been blurs of yellow. "I can't believe these two are fighting so well against _Super Sai-jins_ without even putting out an aura."

"Hmm, I don't think they can." said Tao. He couldn't really see the fight either but he could tell the two he could sense were fighting people he could not. "I can't sense any ki which means they're using an artificial power source. Whoever they are fighting must be some sort of machine."

"A machine?" Zukina asked. "With this kind of power?"

Tao shrugged. "18 is supposed to be on the same level of strength as Bra." he said. He couldn't say for certain, he'd only met her twice. Once on Earth when he'd stopped there for a short while several years back, to inform those still there about the Potaras, and once since then when the Empire had nearly captured him, neither time witnessing her power. "17, 16, and Gero are, of course, stronger."

"Well, I've seen all of them, and 19 too, on various visits to Saiya." said Storm. "And that's not who they're fighting."

"Resistance built machines, perhaps." said Tao. "That was the reason 18 went to Leberion, according to the reports. If they and Gero can do it I'm sure someone else can as well."

Further discussion was cut off as an explosion erupted down the block, destroying over a hundred square feet of the city. When the light of the explosion faded away they could see Bra standing at the center of the crater, panting heavily. There were tears in her clothes now but she didn't really look hurt. Something that made little sense to the Wathor. With as much of a strength advantage as the little guy had over the Hybrid he should have been able to kill her, with ease, a long time ago. Unless, of course, he wasn't trying to... But then, why fight them at all?

Suddenly a loud crack directed her attention back up into the sky where she saw someone else, a woman who looked quite a lot like Pan, now floating beside the Hybrid. The man she'd been fighting was just pulling to a stop a few feet away, having been knocked aside by a sudden hit. And then someone else appeared beside Pan, someone that Storm recognized, even with the changed hair color, and her eyes widened. "That's 17!"

"And 18, too." said Tao. Storm lowered her gaze and saw the other woman, her hair a different color as well, scowling at the small purple man while helping to hold Bra on her feet.

XXX

The six of them had been forced to get a single room, none of the other rooms in the small motel had been empty. Two beds and a small sofa were the only places to sleep, but that was fine for them. He and 18 didn't actually need sleep, and Videl only need a little, so it wasn't much issue. Faith had one bed while Pan and Bra alternated between the remaining bed and the couch, refusing to let Faith alternate with them. Videl just got her couple hours of rest a day napping at the desk where 17 was currently sitting, going through public news streams for information.

The fact that their defection hadn't been made public wasn't too much of a surprise to any of them. Four Masters defecting, especially the four that had, was a major black eye that Vegeta obviously wanted to avoid. The fact that Trunks's death hadn't been reported yet and that he was, in fact, listed as away on a mission tracking down the 'pirates' that had supposedly attacked and raided Gorneo, however, was a surprise. Goten's death had been reported the day after it had happened, though the general public thought he'd simply gotten sick and died of some new strain of heart targeting virus.

They had all expected a similar story for Trunks. Not something about him flying around the galaxy chasing after pirates. A story like that could only last so long, eventually he'd have to turn up _somewhere_ and when he never did... Word had gotten out, however, about Cold and Inferna being missing. Their disappearance was a lot harder to keep quiet since there were now 48 ships roaming around in the Eye of the Universe for some sign of their ships or occupants. What's more, Inferna's daughter, Phyre, was making a lot of problems. Apparently, based on what he could find on the news nets, she wasn't nearly as interested in joining the Empire as her mother had been, and was blaming the Master's for her disappearance.

"What the...?" 17 wondered, suddenly getting up from the desk and walking over to the window. He had set his scanner to trace Pan's power while she was out and it had just suddenly spiked up to her natural maximum. He made a quick adjustment and found that Bra had powered up as well, but he wasn't detecting any other large powers in their area. He turned as he heard the door open and saw Videl and 18 enter. Both looked concerned, which meant that 18 had also noticed the sudden power-ups.

Not surprising since she'd been keeping an eye on Bra's level. Videl didn't have a scanner system, Gero had been in a rush when modifying her and only really doing it to keep her alive. The woman had some basic ki sensing ability, however, but her cybernetics interfered and she wasn't able to sense levels over much of a distance, or ones that weren't blatantly obvious. Neither of the girl's base levels were high enough for her to sense so 18 must have mentioned something to her.

"Ideas?" 17 asked, drawing Faith's attention from where she lay on one of the beds, reading.

"I don't know." 18 said. "I'm not reading anything else around them of any real significance. I..." She, 17, and Videl all turned to look at the west facing wall then, all of them picking up the sudden leap Pan's power took as she transformed. "Something is definitely wrong if she's going that far."

"What's up?" Faith asked.

"Not sure." said 17. "But Pan and Bra have powered up and Pan trans... and now Bra just transformed as well. Stay here, we'll go check this out." Faith nodded as the three Cyborgs walked over to the open window and flew out into the city. "18?" he asked, glancing over at his sister, as a ball of energy suddenly flared to life in the sky.

"I'm not picking up anything either." she said, frowning. "Do you think Vegeta managed to track us after all? It could be Gero or 16..."

17 frowned as his scanner switched to an ERROR notice for Pan's power and the ki ball was shoved off into the sky. "Maybe, but neither of them would require Pan to go this far." he said. He turned his focus forward again and, a moment later, they were close enough to make out who Pan was fighting with above the city. "That's not 16 or Gero." he said.

"Resistance?" Videl suggested.

18 moved her eyes from the fight in the sky down to the ground as a loud explosion drew her attention. "I don't know." she said. "But I know how to find out. Let's go!" And with that she charged down toward where Bra was fighting some small guy. Meanwhile Videl and 17 charged in to help Pan. Videl reached her first and kicked the large man in the head knocking him a few feet away. A second later 18 fired a blast of energy at the purple guy, who was currently kicking a prone Bra in the side, and he dodged out of the way as she landed beside the Hybrid and picked her up, eyes locked on the unknown attacker.

"I can't leave you alone for five minutes." 17 said, shaking his head as he, Pan, and Videl floated down to land with 18 and Bra. The gray man watched them for a moment, then vanished and reappeared standing beside the purple guy. "So, what have got here?"

"They're after you two." Pan said. "The gray guy is at least as strong as me..."

18's eyes suddenly narrowed as she spotted the bowtie on the small man and the belt on the large one. "RR?" she said. "Red Ribbon? Did Gero build you?"

The purple man grinned. "In a manner of speaking." he said. "The bodies are his design, our minds..." he reached up and tapped the side of his head. "We already had those. So nice of you to come out to us since these two were unwilling to take us to you."

_"So, that explains that."_ Storm thought. _"Fighting Mistress Bra and Mistress Pan had merely been a means to lure Master 17 and Mistress 18 out into the open. But why? According to the purple guy they were built by Gero, so why...?"_

"Vegeta too scared to come after me himself, then?" 18 asked, scowling at the two before her.

"Why send in a battle ship when just a few guns can get the job done?" asked a new voice from above and behind them. 18 and the others all turned to look and saw another man standing on the corner of a roof at the edge of the crater. Green pants, yellow vest, baseball hat with the RR logo, white hair, and no power level.

Zukina's eyes widened. _"That voice... how could it... it can't be..."_ she thought in shock.

"Another one!?" Bra cried in surprise. _"Pan and I were getting our butts kicked by just two of them..."_

"13 at your service, Princess." he said, grinning and bowing slightly.

"To have better luck against me than Vegeta did you'd have to be stronger than him." 18 said. "And I highly doubt you are. Not if the big guy is only as strong as Pan."

The man on the roof grinned. "I'm good at winning fights even when out gunned by the enemy." he said. "Been doing it for years. It's why Vegeta picked me to lead this little soiree. Now, how about we get down to business so we can get this over with? Our orders are to kill you two and I intend to be finished with that and on my way back to Saiya by nightfall."

"Well, I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to change your plans." 18 said as she began to glow. A moment later there was a flash of light as she finished transforming, her wig falling to the ground. "Let's see what you've got!" she called, launching up at him.

"14, 15, deal with the other one!" 13 ordered as 18 charged at him. She launched a punch for his head but he slipped around it, grinned, and then slammed a knee into her stomach. The blow hurt, but not very much, and 18 grinned as well. She'd been right, this guy was weaker than her. With as well as she'd done against Vegeta she figured she'd have no trouble against this Android.

She snapped a kick out for the side of his head and he deflected it away before launching a punch at her face. 18 dodged around it and countered by smashing the heel of her right foot into his back. The blow knocked him down toward the ground and she quickly cupped her right hand and charged a ball of ki. "Shredder Mine!" she cried, pitching it at him. Suddenly he seemed to shimmer and then he vanished, her attack surging on down into the ground before exploding. _"He can teleport!?"_ she thought in surprise. She'd just started turning around to look for him when two feet slammed into her back, the force of the blow driving her down into the crater her attack had just made.

"Deadly Bomber!" he called out from above her. Off to the side Zukina's eyes widened again.

18 climbed to her feet quickly and her eyes widened as the large ball of energy, nearly twelve feet across, charged down at her. "Kamehameha!" she cried, thrusting her arms up and firing off a wave of blue energy. Her attack slammed into the red ball above her and began to slow it. Just as the attacks were about to stalemate a foot appeared in front of her face and impacted with a loud crack. The hit caused her to stumble back but she lashed out with a hard left kick that caught him in the chest and knocked him back from his attempted charge. She then dodged to the side as the red ball of energy resumed its downward plunge, hit the ground, and exploded.

Pulling to a stop she raised her arm, palm flat, and a disc of golden energy formed. "Destructo Disc!" she cried, throwing it. Just before it hit 13 shimmered and vanished again. 18 whirled around and lashed out with a back hand but he blocked it as he appeared behind her and then jammed his knee into the small of her back before reaching out, grabbing her head, and then slamming her face first into the ground.

"No... way..." Bra said slowly, in shock, as she watched the battle. "Is... is he stronger than her?"

"I don't think he is. It's like he's anticipating her moves, reacting to them before she even makes them." Videl said.

They both turned, then, at a grunt from behind them. Pan was floating in front of 17, arm up, one of 14's large fists pressed against her arm. The Hybrid scowled as she kicked him in the head, dashed off to the side, and then kicked 15 in the back knocking him away from 17's location. Turning around she saw 14 with his arm up about to fire an energy blast at the Cyborg and shot back in at him, kicking his arm as he fired and causing the attack to miss. _"Damn it!"_ she thought, seeing 15 charging in again. _"I can't keep up with both of them!"_

A resounding crack sounded a second later as Videl slammed her foot into 15's head and knocked him into a near-by building. Pan gave her a quick glance and smile but then turned her focus back to the Android in front of her. She slipped around another of his large fists and then kicked him in the chest driving him back a few more steps. She had to force him away from 17. She'd just slammed a fist into his face, knocking him onto his back, when she heard her mother cry out. Turning to look she saw Videl doubled over 15's fist, eyes wide.

The small Android then jammed his elbow down into the back of her neck slamming her face first into the ground. Turning from Videl he charged in at 17 again. Pan scowled and fired an energy blast at him that made him swerve off to the side. "17!" she cried, blocking a kick from a once again standing 14. "Get out of here, you have to hide. I can't protect you and fight both of them at once, and they're too strong for anyone else!"

17 hesitated for a moment, he really didn't want to leave when both 18 and Pan were in danger, but he knew she was right. She couldn't keep them both away from him for long and trying to was just putting her in more danger than she would be otherwise. He gave her a nod and then took off down the road, quickly getting out of sight. With him gone Pan glanced over at her mother and saw she was starting to get back to her feet. She then turned her full attention back to her two opponents. Both of them were scowling. However, her focus was drawn skyward then as she heard a loud crack and gasp of shock.

The crack had been Bra smashing her fist against the face of the man 18 had been fighting, the gasp of shock had been 18's. The fist hadn't seemed to effect him at all, though. He just floated there, scowling at her. Suddenly he shimmered and vanished again, reappearing a few dozen feet away from them. "I suggest you all stop interfering." he said.

Bra snorted. "Yeah, like that's going to happen." she said. "I'm not going to just let you kill 18, and there's no way Pan's going to let you kill her Mate. So why don't you just go running back to my father and tell him to come after us himself?"

"You just don't get it, do you?" 13 said, crossing his arms. "Our orders are to kill 17 and 18, but they aren't our only orders. We're also supposed to try and convince the three of you to return to Saiya. If you refuse, or if you persist in protecting the two of them, we are authorized to eliminate _you_ as well."

"Wh-what?" Bra cried, eyes widening.

15 laughed. "You didn't think Master Vegeta would just let trash like you waltz around the universe doing whatever you pleased, did you?" he asked. "There is but one law all members of the Empire must follow, Masters included. Those who defy the Masters die, period. Especially Hybrids."

"But... my father and grandfather..." Pan said.

"Confirmed the order." said 13. "So, you all have two choices. Stop interfering and return to Saiya or stay here and die with these two."

Pan stared at him, wide eyed. _"They... they've been given orders to... kill us if we protect 17 and 18?"_ Pan thought. _"Dad... Grandfather... how...?"_

Bra had her eyes closed tight. _"I should have expected it."_ she thought. _"I should have known that just because he didn't do it back on Saiya didn't mean he wouldn't order it. __**Bastard!**__"_

"So, what do you say?" 13 asked.

"You can tell my father I said to fuck off!" Bra yelled, opening her eyes.

"I'm not leaving 17." said Pan, shaking her head. "No way. Not now, not ever."

15 grinned. "It's cleaning time, all the trash must go." he said. "Filthy half-breeds. 14, let's get rid of them! I've got the 'Princess', you take the other one."


	44. Temporary Victory

A/N: Have I lost all the readers for this one? Haven't gotten a review for it in a while. :/

_Chapter Forty-four - Temporary Victory_

"I don't... this is..." Storm said as 15 punched Videl in the gut and then elbowed her in the back of the neck, stunning her. "These three were built by Gero so why... why are they attacking five of the Masters? And why do they have orders to kill 17 and 18?"

"A falling out has occurred, I would expect." said Tao. He watched as 17 darted away from the battle then, at Pan's request. "You two, I suggest you find somewhere a little safer to watch from if you wish to continue to observe. I'm going to go see if I can get some more information."

Storm nodded as Tao took off down a side road. She turned to Zukina then, as she'd been oddly quiet for a while, and found her with her eyes as wide as saucers and a look of complete confusion on her face. _"I shouldn't be surprised."_ Storm thought at the sight. _"She's been a loyal little Imperial soldier her whole life, and she's a Sai-jin. Everyone getting their assess kicked out there is a Master and one of them is the Sai-jin Princess."_ Storm's attention was drawn back to the others as the fighting stopped for a moment and conversation resumed. _"Whoa, the top three Masters sent these three? And they've got permission to kill Mistresses Videl, Pan, and Bra? This is..."_

"It... it can't... can't be..." Zukina said softly, voice barely over a whisper.

Storm glanced over at her and she still looked as shocked and confused as before. She reached out a hand and laid it on her shoulder then, seriously concerned about the Sai-jin's mental state. This wasn't like her at all. "Zukina?" she asked, quietly. "Hey, are you ok?"

"I... I... his... his voice... the attack... it's just... it makes no... no sense."

Storm blinked. Out of all the things she'd expected to hear that hadn't been one of them. "What?" she asked. "Who's voice? Who's attack? What are you talking about?"

Zukina turned her gaze to look at Storm. "He... he sounds like..." she shook her head a little then, trying to clear it. "The one who called himself 13 sounds like... my brother. And that attack he used earlier, Deadly Bomber, that's one of... Zukin's attacks." She turned her gaze back toward 13 just as the Android launched in to resume his fight with 18. "But he... doesn't look anything like him. And... and he's a machine so... how... why...?"

XXX

15 grinned. "It's cleaning time, all the trash must go." he said. "Filthy half-breeds. 14, let's get rid of them! I've got the 'Princess', you take the other one."

Pan's eyes narrowed as the two Androids lunged her way. _"Shit!"_ she thought. They were both charging right at her, Bra, and her mother. There was no way Bra or her mother could fight against either of them, she'd have to try and protect them both and she already knew how hard that would be from trying to protect 17. _"I can't believe father and grandfather would do this!"_ she thought, firing off a blast of ki at 15 to stall him some before slipping out and around 14's punch for her head, grabbing his arm, and then pitching him at the little purple Android just as he was recovering from her attack.

"Mom, Bra, you have to get out of here." she said, glancing toward them. "I can't deal with both of them and keep you safe at the same time."

Bra shook her head. "No, I can fight." she said.

"Bra, this is no time to be stubborn!" Pan yelled as the two Androids charged in again. "Suppress yourself as low as you can and get out of here! Mom, take her and go!" she cried, blocking a punch from 14 while lashing a kick out at 15. Bra attempted to protest again but Videl wasn't going to argue with her daughter on this. She'd gotten a taste of 15's power already and knew that she was way over powered, which meant that Bra was in even worse shape. So she grabbed Bra's arm and took off down one of the roads. 15 ignored them and turned his full attention to Pan.

Pan followed her friend's power level for a few moments, until it suddenly dropped off and she lost it. _"Good, they're gone."_ she thought. _"With any luck these two lost track of her as well."_ With no one left to have to protect but herself Pan would be able to devote her full attention to the fight. "You can't win." she said, dodging around a punch from 15. She knew his shorter limbs and slower speed would make him easier to dodge than the big guy. He had a longer reach than her and was a little faster, dodging him was going to be the hard part.

15 laughed as he and 14 continued their assault, Pan doing her best to dodge what she could and, just barely, blocking the rest. Completely unable to counter attack. "Funny." he said. "I was about to say the same to you." Suddenly he grinned. "I'm so glad it's you and the 'Princess' we get to kill. Maybe after this the Masters will learn that breeding with filth only produces more filth."

Pan's eyes narrowed as she deflected a kick from 14 and then suddenly smashed her fist into 15's face. She went to charge after him but 14 slammed an elbow into her face and drove her back again. Before she could recover he followed up with a knee to her stomach and, while still hanging over his leg, he thrust his elbow down into her back. 15 returned to the battle then and smashed a flying kick into her head that sent her surging down the road. Pan saw two women scramble out of the way as she finally pulled to a stop.

Her eyes widened and she ducked under a huge right hook from 14 and then surged in and came up pounding her own left fist into his stomach. The blow made him lift a couple feet into the air but he countered with a powerful backhand that smashed into the side of her head and spun her around. Her eyes widened then as she saw 15's fist surging for her face. She reacted quickly, caught his arm, and then twisted and pitched him into 14 before firing a blast of energy at the two of them which impacted and exploded a second later.

_"This is harder than I'd thought."_ she thought as she fired off a quick volley of shots into the dust cloud her last blast had formed, all of them impacting and detonating in quick succession. _"I've not really had the time to get used to this form yet. Keeping it going in an actual battle situation is... not as easy as I'd expected. If I was dealing with just one of them I'd have a better chance, it wouldn't be nearly as hard to keep up with 14 if I didn't have to worry about where the hell 15 is at. And not being able to sense them is making this even harder yet."_

As she ended her barrage she shot up into the air above the buildings, brought her arms up above her head, hands crossed, and gathered golden energy in front of them. "Masenko!" she cried, thrusting her arms down and firing the attack just as the dust cloud below settled enough to show the two Androids were still there. 14 suddenly lunged up at the attack, arms outstretched, and caught it. Pan scowled as she tried to force more power into the attack but then caught 15 charging at her out of the corner of her eye.

Letting up on the Masenko she whirled on him and fired a ki blast right into his chest, then spun and snapped her foot down into 14's face as he charged up at her. _"Looks like that year I spent with living with Piccolo is about to pay off."_ she thought, bringing two fingers up to her forehead and quickly gathering ki at their tips. As 15 righted again and saw her he scowled, but she smirked. "Special Beam Cannon!" she cried as she suddenly turned, brought her arm down and fired the attack toward 14, who'd started charging at her again.

The Android's eyes narrowed as it saw the attack coming and it served to the side, but not quite fast enough. The beam hit it in the left side of its abdomen and punched a four inch wide hole clear through. Pan had been hoping for a head shot but she wasn't about to complain. Any damage she could see felt like progress to her. She spun back around then to find 15 again and her eyes widened. The Android had spread his limbs apart in an X shape and a ring of energy had formed around him.

"Hell's Halo!" he cried, thrusting his arms and legs forward.

The ring surged toward Pan at incredible speed, energy arcing through the space in the center, convincing her that going through the middle of it was a bad idea. So, instead, she shot up higher to go over it, but 15 shifted positions so that his limbs were pointed her way again and the attack changed course. _"He's guiding it."_ she thought. With that realization she changed tactics and started flying backward and down as it quickly closed the distance left. A moment later she charged through a window, flew through the building to the other side, and then out the window over there. As she emerged from the building she heard a loud explosion from the other side and grinned.

The grin vanished a second later, however, as the energy ring suddenly surged out of the building, a round path of destruction trailing through the building behind it. She didn't have time to do more than curl up into a defensive ball before it hit. Her screams sounded, echoing up and down the street, as soon as the energy in the center of the attack touched her. Then, suddenly, the ring shrank down to the size of a marble before exploding savagely. Pan came surging out of the dust cloud, backward and down, a moment later. She slammed into the ground with a enough force to blast out a crater a full block in diameter.

Groaning and grimacing in pain she started trying to push herself back to her feet once more, but cried out in pain again as 14 suddenly appeared above her and pounded a large fist down into her stomach. Her aura sputtered for a moment but then her foot shot up and kicked the Android in the abdomen, knocking him off of her a few feet. Then she thrust her arms up, slammed her palms into his chest, and fired a thundering blast point blank into him that drove him up another fifty feet and gave her the chance to get out of the crater.

Grimacing in pain as her arms and legs continued to feel like they were burning, she glanced around for some sign of 15 and found him, standing on the roof of the building she'd flown through, smirking. _"I am __**really**__ starting to __**hate**__ his face."_ she thought, flexing her fingers, trying to get the numbness out of them.

"What's the matter?" 15 asked. "Is the half-breed having trouble?"

"What does it matter to you..." she called out, panting. "If I'm a Hybrid?"

15 reached down into his pocket, pulled out his flask, pulled off the cap, and took a few swigs. Closing it again he slid it back into his pocket as he answered. "Because I'm a Sai-jin." he said.

"What?"

"Well, I suppose I should say I _was_ a Sai-jin." 15 corrected. "All three of us were. So it's a matter of some consequence to me, the state of purity of the Sai-jin race. Abominations like you and the 'Princess' are a disease, a cancer that needs to be... excised. Slowly and painfully, one tumor at a time." 15 grinned again. "Hence why I'm so pleased to be the one to deal with you and the 'Princess'. I'll have fun toying with her, dragging the fight out as long as possible, beating her down slowly until she doesn't even have the strength left to move, breaking every bone in her body, before popping her head like a giant pimple." he finished, smirking even more.

Pan scowled at him. "Over my dead body." she growled, charging in at him.

15 laughed. "Oh, but of course." he said, charging in toward her as well, as 14 came up from below. They were still several feet apart when both suddenly pulled to a stop, 15 scowled, and then both turned and flew off in the other direction.

"What the...?" Pan wondered, coming to a stop and watching them go.

XXX

18 scowled as the battle resumed. She just had to hope that Pan could deal with the other two by herself, this one alone was giving her trouble. _"What was it I said to Vegeta before?"_ she thought as she dodged around a kick from 13, countered with a punch to his head that was blocked, and then received a knee to her abdomen. She recovered in time to block the kick he then shot at her head. _"'Your arrogance will be your death', wasn't it? Maybe I should listen to myself a little more often."_

During their initial short encounter her power and speed advantage had proven not to be as much of an advantage as she'd expected. She could see, now, that he hadn't just been bluffing when he said he was good at winning fights even when out gunned by the enemy. The man had a lot of combat skill and it was more than making up for his lower power, much in the same way her determination and relentless assault had given her the edge over Vegeta. Which put her at a serious disadvantage.

As one of Gero's Androids he no doubt had an infinite energy power core supplying his strength. An unlimited reserve of power to draw upon. As a pure machine he also had no organs to damage, no pain to slow him down. Two things that 18 didn't have. Her power was limited when transformed, the sensible energy didn't last forever and even what couldn't be sensed would slowly fade over time. Plus, she was still organic, could still suffer injuries to her internal organs. Injuries she _would_ suffer as this fight wore on. And the pain would dull her senses, slow her reaction time.

She wasn't feeling any of the pain yet. Her body was still coping with her transformed power at the moment, or at the very least her nano-bots were keeping up well enough that she wasn't feeling it yet. But she figured she didn't have much longer as she could already feel the strain. A minute, maybe a minute and a half, before the pain started. And from there she'd make it maybe five to seven minutes, if she was lucky, before it got to be too much. As she deflected an energy blast and then launched another Destructo Disc that 13 teleported out of the way of she started considering her options.

Staying and fighting it out was the most appealing one to her. Destroying these three Androids, getting them off of their backs, would be the most beneficial in the long run. She wasn't sure if she and Pan could manage that, though. She didn't have time during her ongoing fight with 13 to spare the Hybrid even a glance so she had no idea how she was doing in her fight beyond the fact that neither 14 or 15 had come to attack her yet, which meant that at least she was still alive and fighting. Videl and Bra she didn't know the conditions of at all.

Running and hiding was her other main option. She knew that 17 had already done so himself. In the face of these three there was little choice in the matter for him. He simply didn't have the power to deal with them. If she couldn't beat 13 before the internal damage got too severe she'd have to try and do the same. She couldn't take another five days stuck in bed recovering from her injuries like before. Especially not if these three were still out there, roaming the city and the planet. She was worried they'd still be able to track Bra or Pan's power levels, though.

She shelved the idea of trying to run and hide for now. She'd fight it out as long as she safely could before resorting to that. But she would if she had to. Despite Bra's protests she had still no qualms about dying while taking out Vegeta, but she wouldn't let his lackies stop her before she did. Dodging around a kick aimed for her head she smashed a fist into his chest and then a foot into his stomach. She also considered, for a moment, trying to use the Energy Inhibitor on him but, as he was entirely mechanical, she wasn't sure it'd have any effect. Its main effect on her had been intense pain that she hadn't been able to function through and she highly doubted he could sense pain.

_"What I'm going to have to do to beat him is more than just a relentless assault. I'm also going to have to fight on his level."_ she thought, as he teleported again. She quickly flew up and to the right in the hopes of avoiding whatever attack he had planned, and she smiled as his foot lanced through empty air. _"I'm going to have to think five steps ahead, work out some sort of strategy to, at the very least, distract him so Pan and I can get away. If I'm a little lucky I just might kill him in the process."_ she thought a she kicked him in the back of his head.

As he stumbled forward in the air from the blow she pulled her right arm back and gathered energy in her hand again, while her left hand closed into a fist and began to glow pink. "Shredder Mine!" she called, pitching the attack in her right arm forward. Just before impact with 13 the Android shimmered and vanished and 18 turned around, thrust her left arm up and out, and fired off her other attack. "Power Blitz!" she cried as it surged out and slammed into 13's chest just as he appeared. The sudden explosion of the impact drove him back and 18 surged into and through the dust cloud, energy gathering in both hands.

Emerging out the other side she thrust her right arm forward, first. "Sonic Detonator!" she called as the light blue ball of energy surged toward 13 as the Android pulled to a stop at last. With the attack still five feet away from him she closed her hand and the energy ball exploded and a thunderous roar that shook the ground below them and shattered windows for blocks around. The concussive force of the explosion pushed 13 back several more feet. She hadn't put as much power into it as normal, no reason to since its primary attack functionality, blasting out ear drums and screwing up a person's natural balance, would be ineffective against an Android.

Still, the concussive force was useful. It had taken 13 by surprise, taken him off balance for the moment, and broken his guard. She grinned as she thrust her right arm forward. The pink and gold ball of energy in her hand swelled massively as she pulled to a stop. "Shredder Mine Death Blossom!" she called, launching it. Still fifty feet away from 13, about half way between him and her, the attack suddenly flashed and exploded and the Android found himself facing a hundred Shredder Mines, all charging right for him. He scowled, shimmered, and vanished.

18 smirked, closed her hand into a fist, and then yanked her arm back toward her. As 13 appeared to her right he lashed out with a kick but she quickly brought her leg up to block, then grabbed his ankle with her free hand and tossed him toward the Shredder Mines, all of which had now re-directed and were charging toward them. As soon as she released her hold on his leg she brought up her right arm and charged another large ball of pink and gold energy. "Death Blossom!" she called, firing it just as 13 shimmered and vanished, once again avoiding the on coming wall of deadly attacks.

That was fine, she'd expected him dodge. She just hoped her plan worked the way she was picturing it in her head the rest of the way out, otherwise she'd be in serious trouble. She'd felt the pain start when she released the Sonic Detonator and each attack since then had made it worse. She hurriedly redirected all of the Shredder Mines away from her, up into the sky, as she quickly moved up and back to try and avoid 13. She wasn't as lucky this time and instead of getting away from him flew right into him.

_"Shit!"_ she thought, detonating her Death Blossom and turning around to face him at the same time. She didn't get a chance to lash out a punch or kick before his head smashed into hers. The head butt drove her back but she kept her focus on her two hundred ki blasts from the Death Blossom as she directed them out and around the two of them. 13 had started to chase after her when he caught sight of the energy balls, realized what she was doing, and stopped, keeping his eyes on the attacks.

18 grinned in satisfaction. _"Thank-you so much."_ she thought, directing the attacks to charge in at him. As soon as they started in she brought her hands up in front of her face. "Solar Flare!" Instantly the sky was filled with blindingly bright light. The explosions from the energy attacks started a couple of seconds later and, while he'd been blinded, she had not and could see that they were slamming into him. She'd hoped they would but hadn't counted on it. The fact that they were made her last move that much easier, though, and she was sure her plan would work now.

"Destructo Disc!" she cried, pitching her right arm forward. The golden spinning disc of energy surged straight for 13. Just as she'd released the disc she caught 13 appearing to her left, just on the edge of her vision. She quickly pulled back, yanked her arms back closing her hands into fists, and then began charging energy in them. But the attacks in her hands were merely a distraction, the real threat was surging in at 13 from behind.

The Android raised his own arm, red energy gathering in front of his palm, and smirked. "That was a nice try, but not quite good enough." he said.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." 18 began, smiling. 13's eyes narrowed and he just started to turn as the energy disc reached them and sliced clean through his neck. "It looks like it worked just fine to me." she finished, letting the energy in her hands fade and watching his head and body fall to the ground separately. When she'd pulled her hands back she'd actually been guiding the disc, turning it as it flew and redirecting it to come at him from behind.

Just before his severed head and body hit the ground, however, 15 and 14 suddenly surged in, caught them, and took off away from the battle. 18 frowned as she watched them go, but chasing them wasn't an option. Her body felt like it was on fire, the pain was getting to be too much to ignore, now. She glowed for a moment and then a second later was back to normal.

XXX

Avo scowled at the battle occurring nearly twenty blocks away from where he and his brother were floating. He couldn't really tell what was going on from this distance. Not that he thought he'd have any better view up closer. Just by the fact that the fighters kept disappearing when they moved he could tell they were well beyond his or Kado's level. "I think we should stay clear." he said. "There's no way any of those involved in this battle are Tao or that Namek."

Kado nodded. "Agreed." he said. "We still have two more ports to search anyway, before we've checked them all. One of them must have Tao's ship. Come on, let's go."

Avo cast one last look at the on going fight, just as a large ball of pink and gold ki exploded into a number of smaller attacks, and then turned around and followed his brother away from the fight. As they flew away, though, he noticed three others coming in from the distance and flying toward the battle.

XXX

Tao hadn't been entirely sure how, exactly, he was going to locate 17. The man had no detectable energy signature, unlike his sister apparently did in her new state. He'd only been searching for a few moments, though, when he caught a break. His senses picked up another power coming his way at high speed, one that quickly dropped away below his own bottom level sensing ability. But he knew who it was and where they were when their power had vanished and so he quickly headed in that direction. He was just rounding the corner of a building when he saw Bra enter another building down the street.

Even if he couldn't find 17 to get information from him he could try and speak with the Sai-jin Princess. If the on going battle were any indication, she and the others were no longer Masters, so he doubted he had anything to fear, speaking with her. There was always the chance, of course, so he kept his guard up and stayed ready to make a fast retreat if needed as he approached the building and slipped inside. A quick glance around showed that he was inside a bar and hotel. The bar took up the entire first floor and was completely deserted so he made his to the stairs and climbed to the fifth floor. He figured they were going to try and watch the battle and, if so, they'd need height for that.

As he topped the last flight of stairs he heard muffled voices from one of the rooms down the hall and started that way, floating only a few centimeters above the floor in order to avoid any creaking floorboards. "I hate this." Bra said, voice muffled by the walls and the almost closed door to the room she was in. "I hate not being able to help them, especially after the promise I made to Marron. Damn it, why didn't I ever seriously train? I could be at least as strong as Pan, then, and be able to help them!"

"I know how you feel." Videl said. "I came along so that I'd know Pan was ok but... I can't do anything to help. Even with all of the power I have that little guy... one hit and I was in too much pain to think, two and I nearly passed out."

Reaching the door into the room the two women were in Tao came to a stop and considered how best to handle the situation. If he startled them they could react on instinct, with tensions high at the moment that would be bad as instinct would be to send a ki blast his way. He didn't have to worry about it, though. Contact was about to be made for him.

"Who are you?" A voice demanded from down the hall, by the stairs. Tao turned and spotted 17 just topping the stairs. "Tao!?" he cried in shock, eyes widening.

"17." Tao said, giving him a slight nod. "I attempted to follow you to find out what exactly was going on but..." he shrugged. "Bra was easier to track."

The door into the room suddenly flew open then and Bra stepped out, eyes narrowed, but 17 waved her off. "I can't believe you're... wait, you're why Avo and Kado are here, aren't you?" he asked.

Tao nodded. "Indeed." he said. "And I am equally shocked to find five Masters out here."

"We're not Masters." 17 said, shaking his head. "Not anymore."

"17... who is...?" Bra started.

"This is Tao, one of the Earth's Resistance fighters." 17 said. "The only one I know of who's ever left the planet."

Tao smiled. "Not the only." he said. "But the only one who's spent the last few decades gallivanting about the universe."

"Earth?" Bra asked, looking at him. She sighed then, turned, and hurried back to the window to resume watching the fights, as best she could.

17 followed after her and motioned for Tao to come in as well. Of all the Masters, 17 and 18 had been the only ones he'd never been concerned about meeting. 17 he had not met on Earth but he had encountered the Cyborg three times out and about in the universe. He hadn't been overly concerned the first time, wary, but not overly concerned. He'd figured he would be much like his sister and, as it turned out, he'd been right. 17 had let him go when they met each other much in the same way 18 had let him go the one time they'd met after she'd become a Master. He'd even gone so far, one time, as to warn him about Imperial patrols along his intended flight path.

"So, what exactly is going on?" Tao asked as he reached the window as well. He could see some of the fight between 18 and 13 from the window, but Pan and 15 were completely out of sight. Not that it mattered, he couldn't really _watch_ either fight anyway, the combatants were all too fast for him to see. "What's happened that you're no longer Masters and have these three after you?"

"My father happened." Bra said.

17 gave her a glance, rested a hand on her shoulder, then turned back to the battle and started filling Tao in on recent events. "18 had a daughter, born on Earth before we were called back by the Empire." he said. Tao pursed his lips, he didn't need 17 to tell him who the father was. He'd seen her and Krillin together during his last return visit to the planet. "18 recently contacted her, brought her to Saiya, around the same time Frieza set out to destroy the Earth. During her time on Saiya she and Bra..." The Cyborg sighed. "But a little over a month ago..."

"Father ordered her killed." Bra interrupted, jaw clenched. "And sent Trunks to do it. They wiped out the entire Gorneo facility in the process. 18 caught him at it and killed him, then sent a video of everything to 17."

17 nodded. "Pan sent it on to Bra and... we all left. We already made one return trip to Saiya but barely got away."

"18 nearly had him..." Bra said, closing her eyes. "If not for... if she hadn't burnt out so fast she would have."

_"Most interesting."_ Tao thought as a bright light flared to life in the sky. His eyes narrowed then and he turned to look off to his right a little. The wall was in the way, he couldn't see the sky, but he could sense the nearing powers just the same. _"I figured they would come."_ he thought. "We should return to the battle area." he said, turning from the window. "The Cabal is just about to arrive on scene."

XXX

Pan shifted back to base as 18 floated down to land beside her. "Are you ok?" she asked the Cyborg.

"I'm fine." she said. "How about you?"

Pan sighed. "Sore as hell but otherwise good." she said. "Now we just have to find the others and..."

She trailed off there as three streaks of light, two blue and one red, descended to land behind 18. The Cyborg turned to look as well, having noticed the light of their landing, and finally checked her scanner again. She frowned when she saw the readings. These three were the strongest people on the planet, not counting her group. The one in the middle, the strongest of the three, had some sort of shiny yellow exoskeleton covering most of its body, the underlying purple skin only visible around the elbows, knees, and abdomen. He also had a pair of wings sprouting from his back and, while bald, there was something of a crest reaching from the top of his forehead back along his head.

18 figured he was about six foot even, which meant the one to the left of him, the second strongest, was probably around four and a half feet tall. He wore a sort of body armor. White shin and forearm guards and a breast plate. A black body suit was underneath that and he had on white boots and gloves. She recognized the style but she couldn't remember where from. His head appeared to be elongated, reaching out behind him an extra foot and a half or so, but she couldn't tell if it was just the helmet he wore or not. His eyes were pure yellow and what she could see of his face was purple. There also seemed to be two white spikes jutting out from his back.

The third individual, the weakest of the three, was on his right and wearing a blue gi and a white hooded cloak, with the hood up. At first glance 18 thought he was a Namek but, upon closer inspection, realized it wasn't. First of all, the person was clearly female. Beyond that, her ears were box like, reminding 18 of those of a Changeling, her lips were pink instead of green, she lacked the antenna of a Namek, and there were black spots just visible on the top of her head, under the hood of her cloak. She was about five seven or so. She also lacked a nose, and 18 realized then that it was something all three of them had in common.

"So, I was right." the yellow one said, crossing his arms, his voice deeper than 18 expected. He was about to say more but stopped and looked down the road to his right. Videl, 17, Bra, and Tao were walking toward him and the others. "Good, this saves us a lot of time and trouble." he said as the four of them reached him. He turned his gaze to 17 then. The Cyborg was the only Master in the group that he'd dealt with before, even if it had only been over the ComNet. "What brings you to Xentron, and just who were you fighting?"

"It's a long story." 17 said.

"Give me the cliff notes version, then."

17 nodded. "We're not with the Empire anymore. We came here to hide out for a bit, rest up, recover, plan, get some supplies, and so on. Those three..." he shrugged.

"New Androids of Dr. Gero's." 18 said. "Sent by Vegeta to get rid of the five of us."

The yellow armored man pursed his lips then turned his focus to Tao. "And you are with them?" he asked.

Tao shook his head. "No, I just happened to be near-by when the fighting started. I came to see what was up, what with that message that went out after my arrival here."

The man nodded then turned to his two companions. Though none of them spoke Tao knew the three of them were holding a conversation just the same. A telepathic discussion about what to do over this current turn of events. The three of them were the 'leaders' of Xentron, in as much of a sense as a world like Xentron could _have_ leaders. They were the supreme authority of the planet and the myriad of Bosses out there, like Ridic and Ludic, all answered to them. They also dealt with any major threats to world security, and five ex-Masters on the planet certainly qualified as such.

"Who are these three, anyway?" Pan asked 17 quietly.

"The leaders here." he replied back, just as quietly. "Nuova, Pui Pui, and Soki."

Tao listened to them but had most of his attention on the faces of the three members of the Cabal. He couldn't hear their mental conversation but he could see the way they reacted to what each other said. Given the range of expressions he saw he wasn't entirely sure what to expect when, after nearly ten minutes, the leader of the group turned to face them again. He met Tao's gaze first.

"Have you determined the source of the message?" he asked.

Tao nodded. "The new Mate of one of my new Wathor traveling companions." he said. "In the hopes of getting her killed by association with me. The problem has been dealt with, however, and I don't expect it to happen again."

He nodded. "Very well. How long do you intend to stay?"

"I'm waiting on a ship to be built." he said. "It will be a few months, but once it is done we'll be on our way."

He nodded again. "Stay inside as much as possible until you do leave." he said. "If any Imperials do come for you I don't want another fight in my city. If that happens we will have no choice but to... remove the problem."

"Understood."

"Good." He then turned to the five former Masters, once again looking at 17 when he spoke. "And you five? How long do you plan to stay here?"

"We're not sure." said 17. "We're still not quite finished with gathering our supplies yet. Once we've got all of our supplies and I can find a suitable destination we'll be able to leave."

"And everything we just got today was destroyed in the fight." Pan muttered. The bags she and Bra had dropped had been in the blast range of 13's Deadly Bomber.

Nuova opened his mouth to say something but stopped and looked back at the shortest member of his group, Pui Pui, for a moment, then shook his head at something the other had apparently 'said' to him. "Providing there are no more fights in the city we will give you a week." he said, turning back to the former Masters again. "If you are still here after that, or if another fight occurs in the city, we _will_ remove your presence ourselves." And with that he turned, lifted into the air, and flew off, the other two right behind him.

"Remove our presence themselves?" Bra asked, watching them go. "They're strong, but not that strong."

"Underestimating the three of them is the last mistake of many people." Tao said as he, too, watched the three of them leave. "If they decide to get rid of you I would be more surprised to learn that they failed than that they succeeded."

Bra glanced over at him, obviously unconvinced, but before she could say anything another voice spoke up.

"Princess... Are you ok?" asked Zukina.

Bra turned and saw the woman from before, the one that had recognized her earlier. "You're a Sai-jin?" she asked.

Zukina nodded. "Yes, ma'am." she said.

Bra frowned a little and shook her head. "Don't ma'am me, it makes me sound old." she said.

"We should probably get off the street." Videl said. "Those three Androids could decide to come back. What chased them off, anyway?"

"I cut off 13's head." 18 said, smirking. "Apparently the other two didn't want to stick around after that. They scooped up his head and body and took off with them. But you're right, 14 and 15 could still be lurking around out there. We should get inside."

"If I may." Tao said. "I'm not sure where you've been staying but our lodgings aren't far from here and there are some things I'd like to ask."

18 looked toward him and pursed her lips for a moment before nodding. "Alright." she said. "I don't see why not. Besides, I have a few things I'd like to know as well. Pan, could you go get Faith? I don't want to leave her by herself now."

"Sure. Where should I meet you?" she asked Tao.

"Ferri's Ships." he said. Pan nodded and flew off to their hotel again.

"Well, lead the way." said 18.

Tao smiled faintly. "This way, Eclair."

18 froze for a second, then closed her eyes, sighed, and smiled sadly as she followed after him.


	45. Discussions, Decisions, and Destinations

A/N: Woot, I do still have readers for this one. Good. As much as I (and everyone else, apparently) like the AH series, this one's my favorite. Though maybe I like it more than the general readers seem to because I know where it's going.

XXX

_Chapter Forty-five - Discussions, Decisions, and Destinations_

Bra walked up beside 18 as they followed Tao, and the two women who were apparently with him, back to where he was staying. "Umm, 18?" she asked, looking over at the Cyborg, who still had her eyes closed. "Why'd he call you Eclair?"

18 sighed again, opened her eyes, tilted her head back, and gazed up at the cloudless sky. "It was my name back on Earth." she said. "Not my original one, I don't know it, but the one the Empire gave me to use with the Resistance. It's what... everyone on Earth knew me as. I quit using it because..." She sighed once more, lowering her gaze again as she did. "Hearing it brought up too many memories I wanted to forget."

"Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't..."

"It's ok." 18 said, smiling softly. "You didn't know, and anyway, I came to terms with what happened back then a long time ago. I'm not proud of it, but I've dealt with it." She reached her left hand up then and grabbed her right shoulder, grimacing slightly.

Bra frowned when she saw that, realizing that 18 had injured herself by using her transformation again. "Are you alright?" she asked quietly, not wanting 17 to overhear.

18 smiled at her. "I'm fine." she said. "It's not nearly as bad as it was after fighting Vegeta. I managed to end this one sooner and didn't have to exert myself quite as much, either. I'll be good as new again in a few hours. No worries."

Bra frowned more but didn't say anything. She was going to worry anyway, no matter what 18 said. She had a strong feeling the blonde hadn't been swayed by her arguments back on the ship, that she was still willing to die in order to take out Vegeta. She was determined, though, not to let that happen. Even if it meant _her_ death to prevent it. Which was something she wasn't willing to tell Pan or 17 as she knew they'd both try and stop her, much as she was trying to stop 18. _"I need more power is what I need."_ she thought as one of the two women who'd been with Tao lead them into a building. _"I need to train more but... with 14 and 15 still on the loose I can't power-up... damn you, father."_

Tao had gone on ahead of them and reached Ferri's shop a few minutes before the others. He felt it wise to make sure the shop was clear and to give the other woman a head's up. "Ferri." he called, closing the door behind him and flipping over the closed sign.

"I was getting worried." Ferri said, flying out into the main part of the shop. "I sensed the Cabal out there."

Tao nodded. "Yes, checking up on matters. I've been asked to leave once my ship is complete. The others have been given a week to finish gathering their supplies and go as well."

"Who were they?" she asked. "Those levels were huge! I never sensed anything like the biggest one, even when I was in the Empire!"

"Yes, about them..." Tao began. He could sense Storm and Zukina not far away now. They'd reach the store in a few more seconds. "I've asked them to come by so we can discuss some matters. You see, there's apparently been a falling out within the Masters."

Ferri blinked a few times and then looked past Tao as the door to her shop opened and Storm and Zukina walked in, followed right after by Bra, Videl, 17, and 18, and her eyes went wide at the sight of them. "Oh... my..." she said softly, the door closing behind them.

"Pan will be joining us shortly." said Tao. "Along with someone else, apparently."

"More!?" Ferri asked, surprised, eyes still wide as she gazed at the four Masters already in her shop. She'd never dealt with or met any of them, though, and for that she was glad. Three of the four Masters in the room hadn't even been a part of the Empire yet when she'd left, two of them hadn't even been born, and Videl had only just recently left the Earth and was more a traveling companion for Gohan than an Imperial in those days. She liked as few people on Xentron knowing about her past as possible. The Cabal knew, she'd approached them before ever landing on the planet in order to get their permission, and Tao knew because they'd interacted a few times prior to her coming to Xentron, and that was enough as far as she was concerned.

Tao nodded. "I wouldn't have brought them here but it makes things far easier for all of us." he said. "Is Eve still downstairs?"

Ferri blinked a few more times, then nodded. "Yeah. She came up earlier, when all of the explosions started, but then went back down again." she said, starting slowly but her normal voice returning by the end. "Which reminds me. Zukina, she wanted me to let you know when you got back, she's apparently found something on the Talon."

"We'll all head down, then." Tao said. "If you could tell Pan where to find us when she arrives." Ferri nodded before turning a somewhat nervous glance toward the door. Tao sighed a little and then lead his group downstairs, Zukina right on his heels. When he reached the door to Eve's room he went to knock but the Sai-jin reached past him and pushed the door open. Xeno, Rain, and Everfrost were already there with Eve and they all turned to look as the door opened, their eyes all widening as the former Masters followed their three allies into the room.

"Wh-what...?" Rain started nervously, glancing at each of the four in turn.

"There's no need to worry." Tao said. "They're on our side, at least for the moment. Everything will be explained in time." He sighed and rubbed his head. "Which will take quite a long time to do, I'm sure." he said. "Everfrost, do you still have that refrigerator Capsule you picked up yesterday?"

"I... yeah, hang on." he said, digging into his pants pocket. A moment later he pulled out a capsule, depressed the button on it, tossed it, and as the smoke cleared a four foot tall fridge came into view.

Tao nodded, opened it, and pulled out several bottles of water and vacuum wrapped sandwiches, handing one to each person in the room. Just as he was handing over the last bottle and sandwich, to Bra, the door opened again and Pan entered, along with Faith. The blue skinned woman glanced around the room for a moment, stopped, and did a double take. She let out a gasp then, her eyes and mouth going wide in a mix of shock and fear.

"Faith?" 18 asked, hearing the gasp and noticing the look. "Faith, what is it?"

The woman just stood there, staring into their group for a few more moments, before the fear began to subside some, though the shock remained. "I... sorry." she said. "They... those two just look... look so much like them..."

"Them?" Pan asked, confused, not even sure which two the woman was referring to.

"She's from Leberion." said Rain, seeing that everyone but her sister was as confused as Pan. Her statement wiped the confused looks off of her group's faces, though those with Faith were still confused.

18, however, had a good idea of the explanation. The Cyborg pursed her lips, eyes locked on Rain. "I take it you've been there?" she asked.

Rain sighed and nodded. "Yeah." she said, setting her water and sandwich down on the desk. "Storm and I were part of Gero's task force." At this, Faith's eyes widened more but the Wathor pressed on. "She and I didn't really do much while we were there. Storm and I were charged with guarding the command post and main science team, we only ever left the command post twice, to deal with attack groups that were threatening the scientists."

Storm shrugged. "It wasn't much of a mission." she said. "It was annoying as all hell, I didn't join the Imperial Army to baby-sit a bunch of geeks, and the orders sucked."

"What do you mean?" asked Bra.

"The standing orders," explained Rain. "Were to eliminate any resistance to the command post or science team, period. Storm and I prefer only to fight worthy opponents, and kill in battle only if needed. But the orders were straight from Dr. Gero so..." she shrugged.

"Their lives or yours." 18 said dryly. "Seems to be the motto of the Empire." She then turned over to Faith. "Are you going to be ok?"

"I... yes." she said, nodding. "I'll be good, I think. Just..." she cast a glance toward the two orange skinned women.

"It's fine." Rain said, walking to the opposite end of the room, Storm beside her. "We'll keep our distance." Faith smiled, a little nervously, but nodded her thanks.

"You know, I'm not much of a believer in coincidences." Eve said from her computer, eyes locked on Faith.

Xeno snorted. "And I'm not much of a believer in fate." he said. "So let's just chalk this one up to chance."

"Umm... ok, I'm lost." Pan said, glancing between the two of them.

"I think, perhaps, it would be best for us to start at the beginning." said Tao. "Though, before that, what have you found about the Talon?"

"Oh, right." Eve said, turning to her computer again. She'd temporarily forgotten about the ship, and her discoveries, upon seeing the Masters enter the room. "Well... first of all, the rescue ship showed up earlier." she began. "The Delta Seven. It's..." she sighed. "It's currently on its way back to Saiya with only three powers on board. Two I could pick up on the internal scanners and one I couldn't."

"And... the Talon itself?" Zukina asked.

"One power left." said Eve. "3,118." She glanced back at Zukina then. "Do you know it?"

The Sai-jin nodded. "I... I think so." she said. "If I'm right, then that's Luttece. She... she's the only one left?"

Eve sighed. "Only one still on the ship." she said. "I don't know if anyone escaped though, there could still be other survivors." She turned back to Tao then. "Anyway, the bit of importance is a transmission that the Delta Seven's Captain made. Apparently via his scouter. I'll play it back." She typed in a few commands, the speakers on her computer crackled, and then the transmission played back.

"What do you want?" a voice asked.

"Are you the Captain here?" came a new voice.

"I am."

"Take me to Saiya." There was a short pause, and then... "Take me to Kakkarotto!"

"Ka-Kakkarotto? You want... you want to speak to Master Kakkarotto?"

"No. I want to kill him! Take me!" Another pause. "Take me!"

"Sorry, I can't do that." the Captain said as a mechanical voice then announced three minutes until self-destruct.

"Then I find someone who will and I don't need you." There was a sudden loud roar, and then static.

"That's the end of it." Eve said. "A few minutes later the self-destruct was shut off. My guess is the last two members of the bridge crew decided to do as he wanted, instead of go down with the ship."

"Someone... wants to kill my grandfather?" Pan asked, confused.

"Well, I think it's safe to assume that he's no longer following Bardock's orders, whatever those were." said Storm. "Which is likely bad news for the rest of us. It sounds like he really _has_ gone insane."

"Alright, I think we're missing a few pieces of this puzzle." said Pan, holding a hand up and glancing at Tao and each of those with him. "Who's not following Bardock's orders, what does my great grandfather have to do with him, and why is he after my grandfather?"

"I think you should sit down." said Zukina, glancing over to both Pan and Bra. The two Hybrids hesitated a moment and then did as suggested. Zukina nodded and turned back to the Nezorf again. "Eve, pull up the pod recording first, then the Tinto recording."

The Nezorf nodded, then did as asked. A moment later Bardock's voice was coming over the speakers. "Kakkarotto, this is Brolly, he's a friend, I asked him to help you. By the ... .ou .et this I'll probably be dead. Things are going badly .. ... ..pire. Prin.. ..geta doesn't see it but Para... ... I can. I wanted to warn you, before they found you. The Chan...ings, or maybe just Cooler, are aft.. ...methi.. and aren't ... .. .ur side. I know he'll kill us all eventually, once .. ... ..atever it is he's a...r. Kakkarotto, be careful, and don't let your guard down."

"...What?" Pan asked, staring at the screen.

Eve smiled. "That was exactly how we felt." she said. "When we pulled Brolly out of the ice on Geozan 7."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Bra said, turning to face the Nezorf. "Brolly? _The_ Brolly? What was he doing on Geozan 7? He died on Tinto!"

"No, he didn't." said Everfrost. "He left Tinto before its destruction, in Bardock's space pod, destined for Earth. Only, the force of the blast from the planet's destruction accelerated the pod to near double speed and he crashed on Geozan 7, right around the same time the Empire found Master Kakkarotto on Earth. After he landed, or maybe while still coming down, a Wons Flash from the system star froze him. He's been in cryostasis for the last 35 years."

"We found him while digging for Xerudia on the planet." continued Xeno. "And were transporting him back to Saiya on the Talon, on orders from Master Vegeta and Dr. Gero. Tao, however, decided to stop in for some supplies and, in the scuffle that followed, the Talon lost power. Power was apparently never restored to Brolly's cryostasis chamber because, two weeks ago, he thawed out and took over the ship."

"And now he's on a working ship and heading straight for Saiya." finished Rain. "And apparently completely off his rocker. He was supposed to be _helping_ Master Kakkarotto, not trying to kill him."

Pan blinked a few times, staring at them all in shock. "But... helping him with... with what?" she asked.

"That's where the Tinto recording comes in." Zukina said, glancing to Eve. The Nezorf nodded and cued it up as Zukina spoke again. "Wait until it's over before asking anything." she said. "So you don't miss any of it."

"You can't win, just give up and make this easy on yourself." said Cooler.

"Sorry, I don't know how to give up." replied Bardock.

Cooler snorted. "This little insurrection of yours is dead. Even Brolly couldn't stand up to your Prince. Face it, you've failed!"

"Maybe." said Bardock, a smug tone to his voice. "But you're wrong about something. This isn't an insurrection. I know. I know what you're planning Cooler! That's why I'm here. I'm here to stop you."

"You? Stop me? That's a laugh Sai-jin. Your kind wouldn't even exist anymore if my father had any sense to him. But I'll correct that eventually. Once I have the needed items and can find the Ancient's Homeworld I will become the ruler of this universe!"

"Over my dead body!"

Then a new voice spoke. "That can be arranged, brother."

"Turles!?" Bardock cried in shock. "You..."

"Yes. I joined with Cooler. I'm sick of living under the shadow of the royals. Being looked down on all the time. At least the Changelings show respect for my power!"

"You're delusional Turles!" Bardock growled. "You're just being used! How could you turn on your own people like this?"

"They never gave me any reason not to." he replied. "So, what's it going to be, brother? Give up now and join us, or die here? You barely have the strength left to stand, you couldn't even scratch me now, let alone Cooler. Face it, you're finished."

Bardock growled. "You're forgetting something, I am a Sai-jin! I do not give up, I do not surrender, and I do not lose. You're right, I'm finished, I'm not leaving this world alive. I know that, even if you left me here I'd be dead in a couple of hours. But when I go I plan on taking you with me!" And then his screams sounded over through the speakers.

"Gah, damn it!" Turles cried. "He's insane!"

"What's he doing?" demanded Cooler.

"He's going to blow himself up! He'll destroy the entire planet!"

Cooler growled. "Not on my watch. Good-bye Sai-jin! Death Beam!" Suddenly the screams ended. They heard a few foot steps approaching and then the file went dead.

The room remained silent for several minutes after the end of the file. Zukina had her eyes on both Bra and Pan while Videl and 17 were also watching Pan closely. When the silence was finally broken it was 18 who spoke. "Cooler... killed Bardock?" she asked. "But... why? What's all of this about?"

"A very deep and long running conspiracy." said Tao. "One which, unfortunately, we don't yet have all the details on. All we know for certain is that, on Tinto at least, Cooler, Turles, Slug, and Vegeta were working together."

"F-father!?" Bra cried, eyes widening in shock.

Tao nodded. "Apparently so." he said. "Information we've found indicate that he was on the planet, confirming Cooler's statement that Brolly lost to him. It should be noted, also, that Brolly was, and still is, a Super Sai-jin. From birth, like both Vegeta and Kakkarotto." The former Masters all stared at Tao in shock and the Human continued. "What's more, there's an interesting annotation to both Brolly and Kakkarotto's birth records. They possess something no other Sai-jin does. An anomalous mutation of a sort. A Constant Zenkai."

"Constant... Zenkai?" Bra asked.

"I was confused, too." said Zukina. "They had to ask me for a translation since it was written in archaic Sai-jin. But apparently both of them have this trait. According to Dr. Gero's study on the matter Master Kakkarotto's got a constant level of the chemical responsible for Zenkais of 2% per billion while Brolly's is 10% per billion. Which means that even though he's been frozen for the last 35 years... it's possible he was still getting stronger while down there."

"And it gets worse." added Storm. "Dr. Gero also said that the effects of such a thing were dangerous due to the 'increased risk of mental problems developing, including complete insanity' and voided the idea of inducing it in anyone on purpose. Couple this with the fact that tissue damage from cryofreezing can start after 25 years and Brolly was frozen for 35 and..."

"You get a super powerful lunatic." finished Rain. "Which is apparently what we have."

Pan closed her eyes and swallowed a lump in her throat as Bra turned back to 18. "We... may not have to go after father again after all." she said, then looked over to Pan. "But... despite them allowing father to do it, I hope nothing happens to your father or grandfather."

Pan smiled a little. "Thanks." she managed. "Though I'm not... not entirely sure I feel the same at the moment. Not after what I learned on Saiya, or from those Androids..."

"There's more, yet." said Tao and the former Masters all turned their attention back to him. "I've since learned that Slug was the one to destroy Tinto for the purpose of covering up the reason they were all there in the first place. It would seem that Bardock, Paragus, and Brolly were there to stop Cooler and his plot, his desire to locate the seven artifacts left behind by the Ancients, and then locate Homeworld to obtain some great power that is sealed there."

"Ummm... Ancients? Homeworld?" asked Bra, confused.

The Human nodded. "The Ancients are so named because they were a very old race, one that died out long ago. Long before any of the other races in the universe had ever even taken to space. All indications point to them having been the first race of the universe, in fact. I have been searching, for quite some time, for their artifacts in order to find Homeworld and aid my allies back on Earth. Slug has been searching as well, however, and while I have four of them... he has the rest."

"So, this power is what you've been looking for for all these years?" 18 asked. She'd known he was searching the universe for something, she'd picked that much up when she'd first met him on Earth, she just hadn't realized what.

"No." Tao said. "The power that Cooler is after is only one thing the Ancients left behind. They left behind something else that I, and those from Earth, want. Items that can only be created with the artifacts they left behind which, apparently, are also the keys to unsealing this power that Cooler wants. That basically sums up what we know of the conspiracy."

"And... you're still looking?" asked Videl. "Even though the Earth, and everyone there, is gone?"

Tao pursed his lips for a moment, unsure if he should say anything. So far only Nail knew about the survival of the Humans. He'd held back that little bit of information from the rest of his companions largely because of Zukina. Her transmission to the Empire about his presence on Xentron had shown he'd made a wise choice in that. But matters had since changed, he doubted she'd be much of a problem anymore. Finally he sighed, and decided on his answer. "Yes." he said. "I'm still looking. Because while the Earth is gone its people are not."

"Wh-what!?" 18 cried, eyes going wide. Even his traveling companions looked over at him in shock.

"A last minute escape plan." he said. "They all should have made it off world just fine. I have not, as of yet, been able to contact them to be certain, but I see no reason why they are not safe on our new, and concealed, world."

18 stared at him for a moment longer and then closed her eyes and bowed her head. Tao could see her lips moving, though he couldn't hear her saying anything. He didn't have to, he could lip read the repeated thank-yous to Kami and the Kais just fine. After a moment he turned his gaze toward Faith. "We can also shed some light on Leberion."

"What?" 18 asked again, head coming up again, and eyes opening.

"Eve, if you would." said Tao.

The Nezorf nodded again and typed a few more things into her computer. The screen blanked for a moment and then the video of the male Wathor came up. "Lord Slug, Cyclone reporting on the Leberion situation. The reports from the system team have been confirmed, Valor is no longer in power on the planet. The entire city of Defiance is no longer present. All indications are that the Battle Droids are no more. We can resume operations as soon as you give the order. Cyclone out." and the screen went blank again.

18's eyes narrowed as the message played. "Slug's men were the ones attacking Leberion?" she asked. "But then, if he's working with them, why would Vegeta send..." she trailed off then and closed her eyes. "_Damn_ him!" she cried, slamming a fist into the wall and cracking it.

"What?" asked Faith, looking over to 18. "What is it?"

17 glanced at his sister, saw fresh tears rolling down her cheeks, then looked back to Faith to answer for her. "If Vegeta is still working with Slug, and Slug's men were the ones attacking Leberion, then Vegeta sent 18 there to remove the Battle Droids so that Slug's attacks could resume again."

"Which means there wont be a defense team sent to the system to take care of the raiders when they come back." 18 said, her jaw clenched, and Faith's eyes widened. "**Damn him**!" she cried again, smacking her fist against the wall again, and this time punching clean through it.

XXX

The door was already open by the time they reached the ship and the two of them flew inside quickly. They rushed past several shocked soldiers until they reached the equipment Gero had placed on board for them to use if the need arose. None of them had expected such a need would come along though, but now that it had they were all glad they had the machines. 14 lay 13's body down on one of the tables while 15 placed the head right over the neck stump and then turned the system on. Within seconds a metal lid had closed over the table and they could hear the whirring, clicking, clacking, whizzing, whining, buzzing, and popping of the machine as it worked on repairing the damage.

13, they knew, was just fine aside from the physical damage. He'd been talking to them the entire way back to the ship, going over his new and revised plan in the face of their rather unexpected, and quite annoying, defeat. All that he needed was for his head to be reattached to his body. A process that would take, according to the computer readout on the machine, approximately 57 hours. With that attended to 14 lay down on one of the other tables and 15 activated that system as well. A second later its lid was closed and the same noises could be heard from within. Nothing had been severed on the large Android, and no important internal systems had been damaged, so his repairs were estimated to take only about 12 hours.

As 15 walked from the room to find some means of entertaining himself until his allies were repaired again he mused on the irony that he was the only one not needing fixed. Both 13 and 14 were stronger than him and they'd both come out of the fight with damage while he was still fine. Well, no, his right arm seemed a little stiff, but that could be fixed with one of the simpler maintenance booths if something really was wrong. _"Talk about ass-backwards."_ he thought. _"The weakest took the least damage and the strongest took the most."_

Though, as he thought about it, it made some level of sense. 13 had been fighting an opponent stronger than himself, by himself. Meanwhile he'd had 14's help and Pan had, no doubt, considered the larger and stronger Android the greater threat. Hence the sudden redirect of her attack at 14 instead of at him. He considered bringing that up with 13 after his repairs were done but decided there was no point. He figured the other man had already realized and considered that himself and decided it offered little to no real advantage. Besides, he was looking forward to 13's new battle plan. He had a feeling it would be quite fun.

XXX

"Well, at least we have a destination now." said Bra, looking over to 18. "If father wont send anyone to get rid of Slug's men then I say we go ourselves. It sounds like Saiya's going to be too dangerous for us soon anyway." 18 smiled and nodded. Bra bit her lip then as she closed her eyes. _"I just hope mom doesn't get caught in the cross fire."_

"Slug has not yet received this message." said Tao. "So Leberion is still currently not in danger. I have an interest in speaking with those troops myself, in the hopes of locating Slug's hiding place. So, if possible, I'd like you to wait until our ship is done in a few months time before doing anything."

"I doubt they'll wait that long before they act." said 18. "And we have to be off Xentron by the end of the week. I trust your judgment on the abilities of this 'Cabal' since you know more about them than I do so, despite how absurd it sounds, if you think they're capable of removing us from the planet then I'll not doubt it. And avoiding 14 and 15 for even the next week will be diff..."

She trailed off then as Ferri came flying up the hallway. "What was that crash?" she called, and then froze as she saw the hole in the wall.

"Sorry." 18 said, noticing the hole for the first time herself and opening the door so she could talk to the other woman. "I'll pay for the damage." Ferri blinked at her a few times and then nodded her thanks.

"What I'm still wondering is how those three found us so fast." said Pan, frowning.

Tao glanced to Pan for a moment, then over to 17 and 18. "I thought you two had tracers?" he said.

"We do. They're off." said 18. "Have been for a while now. Our link to Gero's computers is also closed."

"Ummm..." Ferri said, landing and walking into the room.

17 felt an elbow in his side and then Pan was whispering in his ear. "You better keep your eyes above her neck." she said, and he laughed softly.

"What is it, Ferri?" Tao asked.

"Well, you two have Imperial nano-bots inside, right?" she asked, looking at the twins.

"Sure." said 18. "But those aren't stan..." she stopped then, blinked a few times, and then turned to look at Videl. "I'm an idiot." she mumbled.

"Uh, what?" asked Videl, not sure why 18 was looking at her.

"Your nano-bots." 18 explained. "All Imperial nano-bots come with location tracers of their own in case of theft or so on. Our nano-bots were custom made, no internal tracers to them, but yours are standard ones, 'off the shelf' so to say. The tracking units built into 17 and I are off, our exact location can't be pinpointed, but the tracers in your nano-bots are still working. The location on them isn't as exact as our tracking units but it's enough to track us to a city, at the least."

"They... found us because of... me?" Videl asked. "I didn't know they could track me."

"It's fine." 18 said, sighing. "It's partly our fault, too. I'd completely forgotten about those tracers. The question is, what do we do about them?"

"I can mask the signal." said Ferri. "It's not too hard. I just need to check their operational frequency and then make a scrambler and canceller system." She looked over and up at Videl. "You'll likely have to wear it constantly, though, to keep the signal blocked."

Videl smiled. "That's fine." she said. "As long as I can stay with my daughter I don't care."

Ferri smiled back. "Alright. I'll get to work."

"How much?" Videl asked.

The question stopped Ferri a little short of the door and she tilted her head some. "Tell you what." she said. "You stay here to help me with building Tao's ship until you have to go and we'll considered it paid." she said, grinning. "It'll be cheaper for me to have you lift the heavier pieces than to run the crane."

Videl laughed and nodded. "Deal." Ferri nodded back and flew out the door to get to work on the scrambler and canceller.

"So, now that that's been taken care of." said Tao. "Back to the matter of Leberion and Slug's troops. You may not be able to wait here the entire time but you could wait in the system for us, unless his men act first. We're both rather limited in who we can send down onto the planet anyway. If they do come before we arrive..."

"We'll make sure to capture some of them for you." 18 said, nodding. "I'm interested in knowing if Vegeta is still working with Slug, myself. I'm not going to hold my breath that Brolly will have the kind of power to do anything against Kakkarotto, but this could be the opportunity Pan suggested before." The Hybrid looked over at her and blinked, not sure what 18 meant, so she explained. "A way to hit Vegeta without fighting him outright." she said. "If we can stop Slug, and get whatever Tao's after, then..."

Bra grinned. "We could screw up father's plans, whatever they are, and then have more help the next time we go up against him."

"And possibly draw Vegeta out to us." said 18. "Make him fight us on our terms. If he knows about this power that Cooler is after, and thinks we're on the verge of getting it, we might be able to force his hand, make him slip up."

"Alright, I think now we're the ones who need filled in." said Storm. "Why are you guys after Master Vegeta?"

Tao saw both Bra and 18 glance at the ground so he decided to answer the question, best as he felt he could from what he knew, and let them fill in any of the blanks. "It would seem." he began. "That 18 had a daughter whom Bra became involved with. Sometime recently, however, Vegeta ordered her death for some reason. 18 caught Trunks in the act of carrying out Vegeta's orders, and killed him." Zukina's eyes widened as Tao spoke.

Bra picked up from there. "18 recorded the whole thing and sent it to 17, Pan saw it then and sent it to me. 18 and I left the Empire because of what father did, 17 left because 18 did, and Pan left because 17 did."

"And I left because Pan did." said Videl. Pan glanced back at her and smiled.

"And then Vegeta apparently had those three goons built and sent after us." said 18. "No matter. We'll lose them once Videl's nano-bot tracer signal is blocked." She looked over Tao and his group and considered the course of events that had led them all together as they were now. She had a feeling that Vegeta may have signed the Empire's death warrant, starting with the Tinto events and ending with Marron's murder. After all, it was his actions that had set all of this in motion. Her gaze was then directed toward Eve's computer as it suddenly beeped.

"Now what?" Rain asked.

"Checking." said Eve. "We've got another embedded video with Slug's name as the detect trigger." she said after a moment.

A few seconds later another video file came up on screen, this time it was a light blue skinned man with small horns and yellow-orange hair. A man that Tao recognized. "Angira." he said, frowning. "The commander of Slug and Turles's forces."

"Lord Slug, sir." Angira said, bowing his head slightly. "We have information on Tao's current location. It is nearly a month old but someone on Xentron has reported his presence on the planet. We are currently en-route to the planet to determine if he is still there, and acquire the artifacts he has taken if he is. We will arrive on the planet in about four more weeks. Angira out."

Tao sighed as the screen went blank again. "And more trouble rears its ugly head." he said. "Hopefully we can avoid them, and Avo and Kado, until the ship is complete and we can leave. All of them are stronger than I, and I don't think the Cabal would take kindly to another battle in the city."

Zukina plopped down onto the bed and laid down. "Sorry." she said, sighing as well.

Tao waved off the apology. "It doesn't matter." he said, though he hoped Nail returned soon with some good news.

XXX

The blue crystal was now glowing so bright it looked like a blue sun. Suddenly the crystal began to shake as a beam of white light surged out from it, then another and another. A moment later there was a thunderous bang as the crystal exploded into thousands of little pieces. The light remained, however, floating a few inches above the ground. Slowly it began to gather together and then, in a bright flash, the light was gone and a figure stood in the alcove the crystal had once occupied.

It was another armored individual, similar to the first, but not quite the same. This one was about six foot two in height and broad shouldered. The armor was far simpler in design, as well. Just a breast plate, shin guards, forearm guards, and helmet that looked as they were made of solid blue stone. Where there was no blue armor there was black leather and chain mail. The helmet on this one had an open face showing the man in the armor had light blue skin, red hair on his eyebrows, and orange eyes. Long bushy red hair hung down his back, coming out from under his helmet, and a red wooden staff was held in a sling on his back.

He frowned as he looked first at the yellow light floating in the central crystal of the room, then up at the ceiling. He bent his knees then and leaped up out of the room, through the hole over his head.


	46. The Second

_Chapter Forty-six - The Second_

Cold stood beside Inferna aboard his ship in one of the lab rooms. Their people had worked endlessly and tirelessly over the last however long it had been. The project leader was sure it had taken them eight months to complete the work, at least two of the staff said the job was done in only six weeks. Most of them felt it was somewhere between four and five months that they'd worked on it. Cold and Inferna, who had barely left each other's sides since arriving in this strange place, felt it had been closer to five or six months since the project had started.

Kais knew it had been long enough they'd completed their exploration of the circular hallway and adjacent rooms, which was still barely a fraction of the full space. The cursory exploration only, that is. Popping into rooms long enough to figure out what they were for and then moving on, usually. Two rooms they'd found, after the shrine to the great heroes of Nigiro, had prompted more detailed examination. One had appeared, upon first glance, to be an endless and empty void of black nothingness. More intriguing, still, was what happened upon entering that void, for the void would vanish. It was replaced, at once, by something else.

Something that changed depending on who entered the room first and what they were thinking when they did so. Cold and Inferna had used the void room to re-create their own throne rooms, to re-create open expanses of terrain from their worlds and dozens of others, to re-create the bridges of their ships, and countless other places. The techs had done likewise, creating massive and extremely advanced laboratories. They had soon found that that which was created within the room could not be taken out but could be used perfectly within. Everything from the most simple of equipment to the most advanced of computers. The techs had since appropriated the space, at Cold and Inferna's blessing, to create a massive lab and computer system to speed their work along.

The other room they'd found of great interest to them had been far simpler to understand than the Void Room. A hundred glass tubes filled with blue, green, yellow, or red liquid. Each linked to computers thousands of years more advanced than anything in the four galaxies. Even so, it took them only an hour, or what had felt like an hour anyway, to determine what the tubes were and did. They'd come to call it the Fabrication Room. When properly mixed with the others each liquid was used to create something different through a process beyond the understanding of any of their scientists.

The yellow and blue liquids were used in specific concentrations and after specific processing to create the Record Orbs they'd discovered previously. The yellow, blue, and green liquids would, in the right mixture, become a type of metal a thousand times stronger than anything they knew of, and a hundred times lighter. A metal so strong that it took all of Inferna's strength to bend it, even slightly. All four liquids together processed into organic material. Nothing specific, no living kind of creature, but a nutrient rich compound that was clearly meant for eating.

Blue and green could be mixed to create a strong translucent material, some sort of clear stone or metal, they weren't entirely sure. Not as durable as the metal they'd discovered previously but still stronger than the metals used in building their ships. Blue, red, and yellow in one mixture produced another type of metal, the same stuff used in the circuitry of the recording device. In another mixture the three liquids produced the very stone that the shrine itself was made from. Other combinations of liquids, at different mixture settings, produced different things. Hundreds and hundreds of possible combinations, each producing something entirely different, all stored in and regulated by the computers. And somehow, the liquid in the tubes never seemed to deplete.

The Void Room had been used to create more computers to help with the data decoding and formatting process. The Fabrication Room had been used to construct new computers and materials needed to do everything that had to be done. Together those two rooms had sped up the entire process considerably. And now, at last, the final steps had been undertaken and the two Masters were watching the data stored in the Record Orb they'd found previously download into a new storage computer their men had built. A computer that was linked in with his and Inferna's ships and would act as a 'translator' for the foreign data and their own computers.

"Transfer progressing normally." a tech said from where she sat at her terminal. "Data stream is good, transfer rate is smooth, acquisition level is one-hundred percent, read-write is at 340 apm. Do we have any open bandwidth?"

"Affirmative." replied another. "Transfer is only absorbing sixty-percent of available space."

"Recommend rate increase by thirty-five percent." said the first.

"Increasing transfer rate by thirty-five percent." replied the second.

A moment later the first tech spoke again. "Rate increase confirmed, transfer still normal. Data stream good, transfer rate is smooth, and acquisition remains at one-hundred percent. Read-write now at 477 apm, just shy of maximum speed. We are at transfer limit. Estimated transfer time, three hours sixteen minutes and forty-two seconds."

"So, three hours until completion?" asked Cold.

The female tech nodded. "Assuming all time-frames remain aligned between systems." she replied. "We're watching for sudden drops or spikes in data transfer to indicate a temporal alignment shift between locations. I don't expect one, though."

"Why not?" asked Inferna.

"Because the systems are linked." she replied. "We have two working theories on the time flow here. Rigid Time and Elastic Time. Rigid Time goes with the idea that time pockets exist, perhaps even in motion around the planet, and that time passes at the rate determined by the pocket. No variance exists inside the pocket, and no outside force can act on the pocket. Hence, rigid. Elastic means that time has no set flow anywhere on the planet and snaps back and forth like a rubber band where and when it likes, but this rubber band is linked to individual systems. So no matter how much it snaps your head is never in a different time frame than your feet."

"So since the computers are linked..." said Cold.

"Exactly. One is the head, the other is the foot. The time frame between the two is set without variance. And since our computers are linked to them they're set in the same flow. Only thing we might notice is the countdown suddenly going faster or slower." She shrugged then. "But time variance between unlinked but proximate entities tends to be minimal, so I find it unlikely we'll even notice that. It's one reason so many advocate rigidity. I don't buy it, though. Rigidity doesn't allow for feet and head to never exist in separate time flows, or for working long-range communications."

Cold nodded and was about to say more when his scouter beeped indicating an incoming message. Reaching up he activated the communicator. "What is it?" he asked.

"The shrine just glowed blue." replied Fyuu. "We're evacuating all personnel now."

"Understood. We'll be there shortly." He lowered his hand and sighed. He'd hoped to see this transfer through to the end, just in case anything came up. And to avoid any kind of time shift that made it take longer than he felt it should. But it would seem that their next host was coming. "Blue light." he said, turning to Inferna and motioning toward the door. "The shrine just glowed with it."

"It appears our next Shitennou has arrived." said Inferna, walking out of the lab with him.

"That would be my guess." replied Cold. "I had hoped to see what was in that orb first, so that I would have a few more questions ready to ask him." The two had already decided that he would deal with this one if he could. As the two of them stepped out of his ship they spotted Fyuu and the other members of his guard ushering the scientists out and down the stairs. By the time they reached the stairs up to the shrine the building had been cleared.

"Everyone is out and accounted for." Fyuu said.

Cold merely nodded as he gazed up the steps toward the door into the shrine. He felt there was no reason to head inside since the battle would likely be moved out here anyway, as it had before. Not that he could really blame the Shitennou for wanting the battle to occur out doors. Fights on a power scale of this level were never sensible to hold indoors. Not when a single attack could level a large portion of the structure. He wanted the shrine to suffer as little damage as the Shitennou did, it was a well of knowledge he had no desire to surrender.

It was a few moments later that Fyuu's scouter beeped as it picked up a power level, one once again too low for Cold to sense. He didn't bother asking for a reading, it didn't matter how low his opponent could push his power. All that mattered was how _high_ it would go once he stopped. So he stood in silence with Fyuu on his left and Inferna on his right as he waited for the second of the Shitennou to emerge. When he at last did a moment later Cold arched an eyebrow at the sight of him.

Blue stone armor, chain mail, blue skin, and red hair. Similar appearance to the last one but not identical to him. There was enough likeness he was certain the man was definitely the next Shitennou, and that was about the extent of it. The man looked down toward him for a moment, seemed to frown, and then started down the stairs.

"I am Zojo, second of the Shitennou." the man said. "You are trespassing on hallowed ground and are in defiance of the sacred laws of Souzousha. For this, your sentence is death."

"As straight to the point as the last one, I see." said Cold as Fyuu and Inferna moved aside.

Zojo watched them go, though without letting Cold out his line of sight either. Once the two of them had moved out to the sidelines, where Inferna and Cold's crews stood, he turned his focus back to the one still before him and frowned more. "Your victory over Jikoku has filled you with overconfidence if you intend to fight me alone."

"Not my victory." said Cold. "That would be hers." He jerked a thumb toward Inferna then, and Zojo looked toward her for a moment, then frowned again.

"She does not have the power." Zojo said after a moment.

"Perhaps not in her current form." said Cold with a shrug.

"A transformation?" Zojo wondered, still looking at her. "Have transformations been restored?"

"Restored?" asked Cold.

Zojo turned his gaze back to Cold. "Transformations were sealed for all races long ago." he said.

"Oh?" said Cold, surprised. "I myself am already transformed and your friend didn't seem surprised when Inferna transformed."

"He has more contact with the Four Galaxies than do I. Many who have come here have challenged him. I, on the other hand, have only come out to fight five times in this universe. Six, counting the present." With that he reached up and drew a red staff from behind hs back. "I suppose I should not be surprised that transformations have been restored since my last battle, it is very rare indeed for anyone to challenge me otherwise."

"And why," began Cold, drawing his sword. "Not to mention _how_, would transformations be 'sealed' in the first place?"

"I'm not surprised he didn't mention it." said Zojo. "He thinks it's unimportant until he's defeated, which I suppose it is in a way. As I said, you are in defiance of the sacred laws of Souzousha. That is because you are fighting against us instead of accepting your sentence. For each Shitennou you defeat a penalty is incurred. For defeating Jikoku the power of transformation is sealed within the Four Galaxies."

Cold fidgeted a little where he stood. Off to the side he noticed Inferna doing likewise. She knew as well as he did that the sudden loss of transformations would completely alter the face of power in the universe. Cell would be the most powerful organic being in the universe, Piccolo would be second. The Androids, however, would be the strongest. 17 and 18 would be nearly on par with Cell, if he were to revert back to his first stage. 16, Gero, and Videl, they would all be stronger. In fact... _"Loss of transformations would make Videl the most powerful Master. There's no telling what sort of chaos _that_ would create."_ he thought.

"Has this happened already?" he asked.

"No." replied Zojo. "The penalty is not meted out until matters here have been resolved and then all penalties are dealt at once."

Cold nodded. That was good to know. He didn't want the universe tearing itself apart while he was trapped here. "And if you are defeated? What is the 'penalty' for that?"

"The penalty for that is death." he responded. "Death to the entire family line, two generations up and two generations down, of those who defy the sacred laws of Souzousha. Now, we have a fight to begin."

Cold arched an eyebrow at his first statement, then held up a hand at the second. "Two more questions first, if you would." Zojo frowned more, but nodded. "First, if we were to defeat all of the Shitennou, you and any after you who remain, would these 'penalties' still take effect? Second, is only the warrior who fights you considered to be 'in defiance' of these laws?"

Zojo smiled at that. "The penalties are only enacted after the decreed sentence here has been carried out." he said. "Only after the issued death sentence has been fulfilled will the penalties be applied. In other words, once all trespassers are dead. As for the second question..." He slipped into a fighting stance then. He turned sideways, moved his left leg and arm forward, right arm and leg back, staff held horizontally in his right hand. "All those trespassing on this world are in defiance of the laws, and so all shall be punished."

Cold reacted quickly as Zojo charged him, easily slashing his sword through the air and deflecting the other's swing of his staff. He'd rather expected the answers he'd gotten. He was relieved by the first, it meant so long as they continued to win they wouldn't have to worry about those back in the Four Galaxies. The second one, however, he wasn't sure if it was a good thing or a bad one. On the one hand it put them all, him, Inferna, and all of their people, in the same boat. When he won this fight, and if they lost the next, then all of their families would be killed. An incentive to do all they could, certainly, but if subsequent penalties were more severe...

_"An incentive to perhaps try and save others by sacrificing themselves, and their families."_ he thought, easily deflecting a second attack by Zojo and then countering with a kick to the Shitennou's chest that drove him back a hundred yards before he recovered. _"Of course, on the other hand, it sounds like they have to kill _everyone_ who is here right now so if we can get even _one_ person back to the Four Galaxies, then even if the rest of us are killed here we may still avoid these 'penalties' of theirs."_

"Impressive." Zojo said, brushing some dirt off his chest plate. "I must admit, I have trouble determining how strong a person is just by sensing their ki without concentrating closely on it. The stronger the person the longer it takes for me to sense their power out. The woman I managed to sense during our conversation but you, you I had trouble with. Still, I had not expected you to be so near my own power."

Cold raised an eyebrow at that. He'd suspected this Shitennou would be able to transform as well, to double his power as the last had done, and the man's statement had just confirmed that. At present he was slightly less than half of Cold's power, definitely not 'near' each other. He wasn't overly concerned, however. He was a skilled fighter, and he would have a slight power advantage in the battle. Beyond that, Inferna was standing by on the side-lines. If it looked as though he were about to lose she would jump in and finish the fight, as they'd agreed on weeks ago.

As he thought about all of that Zojo began to glow blue. Faintly at first, then brighter and brighter, and in less then a second he was like a blue sun fallen to the ground and Cold had to turn and shield his eyes from the glare. An instant later there was a loud crack and the glare vanished. Cold lowered his arm and took in his opponent's new look.

The armor now appeared to be slightly transparent, like it was now blue crystal instead of blue stone. The shoulders of the breast plate now flared out a few inches from his torso, and his orange eyes had turned yellow. The biggest change to his appearance, however, was the helmet. It was no longer an open face design. A large open oval remained over the eyes but the mouth was now hidden behind a blue face plate. The physical changes were, as they had been with Jikoku, rather minor. But, also as with Jikoku, the man's power had doubled.

The ground under Zojo's left foot shattered as the Shitennou pushed off and surged in at Cold. The Changeling pivoted and brought up the flat of his sword, deflecting the other's staff thrust, then lashed out and smashed his tail into the man's stomach driving him back. He turned again, bringing the sword around in a wide arc, slashing for his head. Zojo thrust his staff up jamming the end into the side of the blade knocking it off course, then twisted and thrust out the other end toward Cold's head. The Changeling dodged back and the thrust ended just short of hitting.

"Extend!" Zojo called, and suddenly the staff rocketed outward like a bullet, catching the Changeling royal off guard and slamming into his forehead, knocking him backward. He lunged forward then, in pursuit, but Cold's tail suddenly shot up and grabbed him by the ankle before pitching him off to the right. The Changeling sent an orb of purple energy after him. Zojo smacked it aside with his staff, then quickly brought it up and blocked the overhead downward slice from Cold. Cold brought his right arm up and fired another blast of energy, this one point blank into Zojo's chest. The attack exploded on impact and knocked him flying back, Cold in pursuit.

Still over twenty feet away Zojo twisted around in the air, slashing out with his staff. "Extend!" he called again, and once more the staff grew in length. Cold ducked down intending to go under the swing but Zojo's voice called out again, "Expand!" and the staff suddenly grew thicker and thicker. Now it was no longer only an inch in diameter but closer to four feet. There wasn't enough time to react and the enlarged staff slammed into Cold's left shoulder and the left side of his head knocking him aside and then down into the ground where he slid for fifty some feet gouging out a two foot deep trench as he went.

_"I'd figured that staff would have special properties, considering Jikoku's swords did."_ he thought, shaking his head and climbing back to his feet. _"But this wasn't quite what I'd expected."_ Reaching his feet again he saw Zojo charging at him once more, the staff again back to its original size, only an inch across and five feet in length. _"Still, two can play at this game."_ He grinned as he sent energy down into his sword. Inferna had done well with it against Jikoku, but she didn't have the skill and discipline, or the experience, that he did with the blade.

"Death Blade!" he called as he quickly brought the sword up and did a left to right slash through the air. The sword flashed blue and then suddenly a paper thin arc of energy shot forth at the Shitennou. Zojo saw the attack coming and quickly moved up to fly over it. Then his eyes widened and he dodged to the left around a purple energy blade extending from the end of Cold's sword forty feet away. The blade caught the edge of his arm and sliced off a half inch from the left shoulder flare. At once Cold pulled his arm back and then shot in at his opponent reaching him just as the man recovered.

Zojo swiped at his head with his staff and Cold quickly brought up an arm to block while also swinging his sword at the Shitennou's head. The other copied Cold, blocking the swing with an arm, but unlike with Cold's block the weapon did not bounce off. There was a flash of blue light and the blade bit into Zojo's armor nearly an inch before the Shitennou pulled away. The Changeling pivoted in the air and thrust out his right leg slamming a large foot into the Shitennou's chest knocking him back several dozen feet.

The Shitennou twisted and thrust his staff down, jamming one end of it into the ground. Griping the staff in both hands his momentum pulled him around in a loop. He released his hold as he came around and shot toward Cold feet first, smashing both of them into the shocked Changeling's stomach a moment later. Zojo pushed off against Cold's chest, twisted in the air so that he was facing in the sky, and then back flipped slamming both feet into the royal's head, snapping it up and back. Completing his flip he landed with a soft thud and then stood up again just as Cold righted himself and stopped as well.

"Return!" Zojo said as he held his right arm out to his side. There was a flash of red from his hand and then the staff appeared back in his grasp. Then he turned on the spot, bringing the staff up as he did. Making a complete revolution he thrust his arm out throwing the staff like a spear. As Cold quickly brought his sword up, intending to deflect the projectile, the Shitennou's voice called out again. "Harden!" An instant later staff met sword with a thundering bang, the impact nearly knocking the Changeling over as he barely redirected the staff away from him. It crashed to the ground a few feet away, gouging out a hole as it continued to slide.

_"Incredible. He can increase not only the length and width of the staff, but its mass and density as well."_ Cold thought as he recovered from his stumble. _"The heavier he makes it the more effort it will take to wield, but the greater the power he can put into his attacks. I'll need to watch for that. Increasing the mass after building the momentum first, as he did with the throw, could let him hit with far greater force than he can usually muster."_ As the staff came to a stop it vanished and reappeared in Zojo's grasp once again. By then, however, Cold was already surging in toward him again.

On the side-lines Inferna frowned as she watched the two warriors turn into blurs of color once more. She'd barely seen any of the battle so far, the two of them were just too quick to follow. She wasn't really surprised by that, she knew how strong Cold was after all. In her first form, as she currently was, he was more than twenty-seven times stronger than her. That she could see even the blurs of their movement was more than she'd expected. It was still annoying, however. Not that there was really anything she could do about it. Even in her second form Cold would be nearly three times stronger than her, still too fast to truly follow.

_"And my third form would be... overkill."_ she thought. Her second form was ten times stronger than her first, and her third was ten times stronger than her second. That would make her about four times stronger than Cold and Zojo, certainly able to follow the fight but not exactly a form she liked to just stand around in. It was large, heavy, bulky, and she was always tense and edgy while in that form. Not to mention that, unlike the Changelings, her people had to expend energy to maintain their transformed states.

There was an alternate solution, however, and she'd already sent some of her and Cold's people to retrieve it. One of the technologies they'd already managed to reproduce from within the shrine. They still were unsure of just how it worked, they'd only been able to create it because the process was one of the automated productions in the Fabrication Room. But knowing how and why it worked wasn't required for actually using it. Glancing behind her to check on their progress she found five of those she'd sent hurrying back with the device between them.

It wasn't much to look at. Just a large metal lump with a green crystal dome on top. She wasn't sure where the sensors were on the device, if the green crystal dome might be the entire extent of the device's sensor systems, or if there even _were_ sensors as she understood them. All that mattered to her was that the device could observe extremely high-speed events and then play them back without any blurring, transmitting the image to the device a person behind the five with the lump was carrying. It was just a simple metal pole with a flat base at one end and a large red crystal rectangle at the other end.

She nodded to the soldiers as they set the lump down on the ground behind her then set the display device in front. A moment later she heard the faint hum of the lump starting up. The crystal began to glow and in less than thirty seconds she was watching the battle as clearly as if she were a hundred times stronger than the fighters. The two of them were twirling, spinning, swiping, slashing, stabbing, punching, kicking, dodging, and blocking in a smooth flow of motion that looked like some sort of elaborate dance.

As she watched, Zojo slipped behind Cold and took a swing at his back with his staff, but suddenly Cold brought his arms back behind his head, sword pointing down, and blocked the attack. Then he spun the sword around, brought his arms back up over his head, and turned around himself all in the same motion, and he brought the point of the blade down at the Shitennou's head. But then the Shitennou was gone, vanished in an instant just as Jikoku had done before him. Inferna felt his disorienting energy move thirty feet behind Cold just as the image on the display shifted to show likewise.

Zojo thrust his arm out and the staff extended quickly, shooting toward the Changeling, but Cold was already spinning and he caught the side of the staff with the flat of his sword and shoved it aside. The force of the re-direct knocked the Shitennou off balance and Cold charged in and caught him with a fist to the abdomen. Then suddenly the Changeling's head snapped up and back. Zojo had placed his staff under Cold's head and extended it up into his jaw. While the royal was stunned the Shitennou pounded the end of the staff into his stomach and doubled him over.

Before he could follow up with another attack Cold slammed the hilt of his sword into the Shitennou's head, knocking him a few feet to the left. The Changeling took a slash with his blade but the staff came up and blocked it. The two moved into another flurry of swings and blocks, each of them getting their weapon or an arm in the way of the other's attacks. And then Cold caught his opponent in the small of his back with his tail, driving him back a dozen yards. He quickly turned around to face him as his sword began to glow purple.

"Death Burst!" he called as the sword suddenly flashed. Inferna's eyes widened as she realized what he was doing. Out of each of the millions of pores in the blade, through which the energy he was pushing into it could exit, a stream of energy was doing just that. In an instant millions of tiny beams of energy, each one less than half a millimeter across, were surging out toward Zojo. Or, at least, in his general direction. The beams coming from closer to the tip were going straighter while those further back were going wider.

The attack would blanket at least a hundred square yards of sky by the time it reached the Shitennou. Each beam far too small to see them all, making dodging them a crapshoot. You could avoid the fifty or so beams you saw coming, but there was no way to be sure you weren't dodging right into one, two, ten, or even a hundred that you _didn't_ see coming. The amount of skill, not just with the sword but in general, that was required for such an attack was impressive. Cold was even better than she'd thought, and she'd already known he was a better fighter than her.

Zojo apparently realized the problem as well, as once he'd recovered from the blow to his back and spotted the attack he didn't attempt to dodge. Instead, he curled up into a ball, bringing his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around his legs, and tucking his head down. A second later thousands miniature streaks of purple energy were zipping past the Shitennou, and dozens were striking against the ki barrier he'd erected around himself. Inferna saw four flashes, ten, twenty, fifty, and then lost count as flash after flash hit the barrier. As the attack was at last ending she saw four or five of them pierce the barrier and strike the man, but they appeared to do little or no damage.

Zojo uncurled himself as the attack ended. "You are an impressive fighter." he said. "One of the most skilled I have met."

"As are you." said Cold.

"I have had millennia to practice. Still, there is something about your style... It reminds me of another I fought, long ago. Called herself Dusk, I believe. She was an impressive creature. Her skill wasn't as honed as yours is, and she fought with an unusual weapon as opposed to a sword, but the style _was_ similar."

"Oh?" Cold said, relaxing a little. "What sort of weapon?" He wasn't all that interested in this person Zojo spoke of. Rather, he was hoping to use this conversation to segue into his other questions. His interest had been captured in the beginning by the whole 'penalty' business and, as such, he'd not had the chance to bring up his Armageddon questions then. With any luck this thread of conversation would allow him to do so now.

"The hand grip was in the center with blades coming from both sides. However the ends were not single points, but like those of a trident."

_"A Dishok?"_ Cold wondered in surprise, eyes widening a little. "With handholds directly under the end tri-points as well?" he asked.

Zojo tilted his head up and back a little. "You know of the weapon?" he asked.

"I do." replied Cold. "The Dishok is an ancient weapon of my peoples." Now he _was_ curious about this other person. He'd never heard of the Dishok existing among any race other than the three Changeling races. Which meant someone from his people had been here before. Had fought Zojo before. It was a fascinating possibility, especially for one who had such an interest in history as he did.

Who had this woman been? How had she gotten here? Why had Zojo not placed him or, if his theory about the Valkano was accurate, Inferna with this person? Had they been in a different transformed state at the time? And she had clearly defeated Jikoku, but Cold could remember no instances in their recorded histories where transformations had not been present. Even the oldest legends, dating back millions of years, spoke of the transformations. How could one of their people have found her way here so long ago that it pre-dated even legend?

"Do you remember what she looked like?" he asked.

"I do, which is why I had not made a connection to your people." Zojo said. "She was about a head shorter than even the orange woman, at least in the beginning. Her skin was mostly a dark blue, though there were dark red stripes encircling her arms, which were longer than average, with her wrists down by her knees. She transformed during our battle, growing spikes from her shoulders and horns on her head. She grew to twice her original height, her face became more snout like, her skin turned completely black, and solid white bone armor formed over everything but her face and hands."

Cold blinked several times as he stared at Zojo, unable to believe his ears. _"How is that possible?"_ he wondered. _"How could one of them have come here? Our records say they never left our world..."_ He shook that off and returned his attention to the present, and to the questions the man before him might be able to answer. "She would definitely have been one of ours, then." he said. "What happened to her?"

"I do not know." Zojo replied with a shake of his head. "She and I fought, and I was winning until she transformed. But after she did she had me at a... severe disadvantage. Even after I myself transformed. She is the only one to have ever defeated me. In the time between my defeat and Komoku's awakening she vanished. The decreed sentence was not carried out, also a first."

_"Interesting. Very interesting indeed."_ Cold mused. _"That explains why no record exists of transformations being lost, then. She escaped. And Komoku would be our next Shitennou, I expect. Still, I wonder what happened to this Dusk?"_

Cold turned his focus back to Zojo again. "How long ago was this?"

Zojo shrugged. "You are the first I've fought since her." he said. "But more than that I can't say. We are only vaguely aware of the passage of time while we sleep and I don't yet know what has past within the Four Galaxies."

"Ah, right. You don't check until after a win." said Cold, remembering what Jikoku had said. And then he thought of a way to segue the conversation into the coming Armageddon. "When you check on the Four Galaxies, do you compare what you see in them to the prophecy written on the walls inside the shrine?"

"No." replied Zojo. "Not any more, at least. We are beyond the point of prophecy that we Shitennou can read. Though we do know of the foreseen Armageddon and we look to see if it has begun yet."

Cold found that interesting. "You can only read a portion of the prophecy?" he asked. "Considering it was written by the natives of this world I would have figured you could read it all."

Zojo shook his head. "We can read only the language that Souzousha gave us. That language changed and evolved over time, became something new that we are unable to read." Zojo cocked his head slightly and looked thoughtful. "What makes you ask?"

"I was curious how far back along the wall Dusk's visit would have been. I thought perhaps it would give an idea of how long ago she'd been here." he answered, then shrugged. "But I'll save you some time, assuming you get lucky enough to defeat me and a find a miracle to defeat Inferna. The predicted Armageddon is close."

"Oh? And what makes you so sure of that?"

Cold smiled. "And The False Gods shall then come through a union of powers, the Horned and the Newly Tailless, and they shall seize the universe and lead it to the End of Days." he said. "I have horns, as did my sons when we first met the Sai-jins. As for the Sai-jins, a little over half a century ago we met them, and allied with them, and they had only just lost their tails. Since then we, along with other allies, have conquered the north, east, and west galaxies. More recently Inferna over there, the Queen of the entire South Galaxy, joined us, giving us control of all four galaxies. The entire universe. There are also a few other titles I can link to people or groups."

Zojo seemed to contemplate that for a moment, then nodded. "So it would seem the end of this universe is soon to arrive." he said.

"Without fail?" asked Cold. "That's what I want to know. Can this predicted Armageddon be avoided?"

"Oh, of course." Zojo said. "The fate of the universe is in the hands of those who live within it. The chance of the end being prevented, however, is very slim indeed. Of course, even after the end comes it is not the end forever. The universe will be erased and a new one will take its place."

"But this battle can be avoided?" asked Cold.

"Yes."

"How?"

Zojo shrugged. "None of this really matters for you. You are here, not in the Four Galaxies. There is nothing you can do to influence the universe."

"For now, but we don't intend to stay here forever." said Cold. "And even if you think we _are_ stuck here, indulge me. Think of it as a... last request."

Zojo smirked. "Very well. I am an honorable man, I shall grant your last request. There are five points pivotal to the foreseen Armageddon. At those five points, and those five points only, can the course of the universe be re-directed. The first is if The Evil defeats The False Gods with which it does battle. If they fall then The Evil will rampage through the Four Galaxies, killing the still sleeping Herald of Destruction along the way, before being contained again. As a result of the rampage the stages will descend."

"The Evil..." Cold mused. "That's one I believe I've identified. If I'm right, it's the creature that Kakkarotto fought and defeated shortly before we came here."

"Oh?" Zojo asked, raising his eyebrows. "So, the first point has already been past? We are further along than I had expected. Well then, on to the next point. The second point is if The Harbinger's death is prevented. If The Harbinger does not die then the first of the Angels of Death will not be awakened. As a result the Herald of Destruction will rampage and reset the stages. Have you identified The Harbinger?"

"No." said Cold, shaking his head. "There was far too little about them in the prophecy for me to place them. It indicates only that they will die and 'summon' the Herald of Destruction. Not enough to work off of before their death."

"Which would imply they have not yet died."

"Buu was defeated less than a day before we arrived here. This 'Harbinger' may have died since then." said Cold, frowning. "I'm not sure how long we've been here, exactly, or how that compares to the passage of time back in the Four Galaxies, or what's happened there during our time here."

Zojo nodded. "Very well then, on to the next. The third point is the awakening of the _second_ Angel of Death. If his awakening can be prevented, by any means at all, then The Chosen will succeed in their goal and, as a result, will reset the stages. The fourth point involves The Exiles. If The Exiles do not free The Fallen One then the Archangel will not awaken and as the ongoing battles continue the stages will be able to descend.

"Finally, the last point is the Archangel. Even if The Fallen One is freed, if the Archangel's awakening is prevented, by any means, then Armageddon will be avoided as The Fallen One eliminates the strongest fighters in the universe, thusly resetting the stages to a much lower point. Those are the only times Armageddon can be avoided. Once the Archangel awakes the stages will be exceeded and Armageddon will be set in motion. At that point it is unavoidable."

"It looks like I will need to spend more time contemplating the prophecy and who these titles may refer to." said Cold.

"If you wish to stop Armageddon, yes. However, before that you must leave here, which is unlikely. And before you can even attempt that we have a battle to finish."

Cold nodded. "That we do." he said. He still had a few questions but, for now, they could wait. Inferna could ask the next of the Shitennou about the heroes and the monster they had defeated. He could tell Zojo wouldn't answer any more questions anyway. The look in his eyes clearly said his only interest now was in concluding their battle. Likely he wanted to look in on the Four Galaxies and see if he could make the connections that Cold had not yet made himself.

The two lunged at each other, Cold raising his sword as he flew and Zojo thrusting out with his staff. There was a clang a second later as Cold blocked the staff with his sword, then spun and smashed his tail into the back of the Shitennou's head. Zojo stumbled forward but countered even while off balance. He thrust his staff back and slammed the end of it into Cold's side, knocking him down. Twisting around the Shitennou leaped into the air over the prone Changeling and aimed the base of his staff down at the ground.

"Pulverize!" he called as the staff suddenly expanded, growing to five feet in diameter, and then extended downward toward the ground thirty feet below. Cold saw it coming and quickly back flipped away, getting out from under it a second before it slammed into the ground with a thunderous crash. As it came back out the Changeling royal scowled at the five foot wide and three foot deep hole that had been formed. It was clearly time for him to put an end to this fight before Zojo did. He launched up into the air at his opponent, drew his sword back, and then slashed out with it just as the staff returned to normal.

Zojo vanished just before the slice would have connected and Cold grinned as he now felt the Shitennou's energy about twenty feet behind him. He'd noted it first in Inferna's fight, and then during his own. Their opponent's could teleport but they appeared to have a span of time after doing it once where they couldn't do it again. Now that Zojo had just done so again he wouldn't be able to for a while, which meant it was time to set up the killing blow.

Turning around he saw that Zojo was already attacking, staff thrust out and growing toward him. Dodging to the side he grabbed the staff in his free hand as it reached him, then quickly turned and jerked to the left. As he'd hoped the Shitennou kept a firm hold on the weapon and Cold used it to slam him down into the ground. His other arm then pulled back and pitched forward as he threw his sword, point first, at the downed man. Even as the sword was still surging through the air he released his hold on the staff, raised his right arm up over his head, and extend his index and middle fingers.

The sword was still only half way to the ground when a spark of purple and orange energy ignited over his finger tips and quickly began swelling in size. Below Zojo rolled to the side, avoiding the blade which buried itself in the ground up to its hilt. No matter, he hadn't expected it to hit, it had only been a diversion. Much like the energy currently floating over his head. "Death Ball!" he called, bringing his arm down and sending the already thirty foot wide mass of energy down toward his target.

Now was the tricky part, he knew, as he chased his attack down toward the ground making sure to stay hidden out of sight behind the energy ball. Zojo had already confessed his difficulty with sensing powers and Cold was gambling that the man wouldn't notice him following the attack down. If the man noticed him then his plan probably wouldn't work, the Shitennou would be ready for him. He grinned to himself a moment later, however, as Zojo caught the Death Ball, clearly unaware of his presence on the other side. Cold pulled to a stop just beyond the edge of the energy mass, extended his right arm, and pointed his index and middle fingers toward where he could sense Zojo.

"Death Beam!"

There was a flash of purple as the energy erupted from his finger tips, then deafening roar and blinding burst of red as the Death Ball, having been pierced by the Death Beam, exploded. The blast knocked Cold hurting into the sky nearly five dozen yards before he managed to regain control. Looking below him he could see nothing through the dust cloud and he sent a ki burst down to blow it away. A crater had formed nearly fifty yards across and at its center lay Zojo, armor cracked in a dozen places, blue energy sparking wildly around his body, and a small hole, no more than an inch across, in his chest. The Death Beam had connected.

Letting out a breath Cold floated down toward him. "I would say that decides the match." he said, landing a couple feet away from Zojo.

"That... it does." the Shitennou said. "But... this will... be your last... victory. None have... ever defeated... Komoku."

"Well, based on what you've said before, none have ever _fought_ him, either." said Cold. "Makes it hard for someone to defeat him."

Zojo laughed. "I suppose... you have a... point. But... Komoku is... Third Stage. You are... only... second." The blue sparks of energy around him had grown in number, frequency, and intensity as he spoke. Then his eyes themselves began to glow blue. There was a sudden flash of light, a thundering explosion, and when the glare and dust faded all that remained were a few shards of clear blue crystal, a scorch mark on the ground where he'd lain, and a floating ball of blue light. The light pulsed and surged off toward the shrine, up the stairs, through the door, and out of sight.

"Well, looks like we're in the clear again for a while." Inferna said, walking down to join Cold in the crater. "Shall we return to your ship and see how the data transfer is progressing?"

Cold nodded and followed her back up.


	47. In Preparation

A/N: At last, a new chapter. I appologize for these long dealys, but Real Life™ is constantly getting in my way anymore. Progress on this, and on Altered History Saga 6, is slow. I am still working on them, and they will get finished. Eventually.

_Chapter Forty-seven - In Preparation_

"One of us could remain here." 17 said as Tao waved off Zukina's apology. "Help you out if any of them do come across you. Leberion's not exactly suitable for most forms of life. Pan and Bra wont be able to go down to the planet, anyway."

"We're not separating." said Pan. "We've come this far together. Besides, there's no telling what could happen later, no telling when we'd be able to regroup again."

"The Cabal wouldn't allow it, either." said Tao. "That they've given you any time at all to stay and gather supplies, instead of forcing you to leave at once, is more generous than usual for them."

"I still don't see how they could make us leave." said Bra. "I'm the weakest of us and even I'm a lot stronger than them."

"You would be wise not to assume your senses can tell you everything there is to know about an opponent." said Tao. "Or would you assume that you're stronger than 17 and 18 simply because you can't sense anything from them?"

Bra blinked a couple of times, then frowned. "I suppose." she said. "It still seems impossible to me, though. It's not like with 17 and 18, or Videl, or those three Androids from earlier. I _can_ sense their powers."

Tao shook his head, she clearly still had a lot to learn about the universe beyond Saiya, but before he could say more 18 spoke up. "Power isn't everything." she said. "It's important, of course, but so is skill and strategy. You may be far stronger than those three, but if you dropped your guard they could still kill you, even as a Super Sai-jin. Don't forget, you're still within the power threshold of focused ki attacks with the three of them. Also, never assume you know everything your opponent is capable of. Look how close your father came to losing because he thought he knew everything I could do."

"Yeah, I suppose." she said, though she clearly still didn't sound convinced.

"There's more out there in the universe than you could imagine." said 17. "Believe me, I've seen a lot and I'm still being surprised by things."

"So what _do _we do from here?" asked Pan. "We still need to get our supplies, but 14 and 15 could still be out there wandering around. If they spot one of us again..."

"We could do your shopping." suggested Zukina. "Avo and Kado only know Tao's face for certain. They were far enough away, and Tao reacted fast enough, that they probably didn't get a good look at the rest of us."

"That's a pretty big assumption to make." said Eve.

"I don't think so." said Zukina, shaking her head. "At best they'll have an idea of what our group looks like, but not what _we_ look like. And that's if they're even looking in the city for us anymore."

"She has a point there." said Rain. "The two of them are likely to have moved on by now. Even if they found Tao's ship they'll have also found that it was sold. I doubt they'll remain here in Xentron City long after making that discovery, hoping to track him down elsewhere. I know that's what I would do. And even should they still be here they would be checking the ports, not the city proper."

"I think small groups of two or three should be safe." said Tao. "Zukina is probably right, which is why I was willing to send her and Storm out for shopping earlier. Speaking of which, Storm, we still need the supplies from Tremo's."

"We'll head back out." Storm said, nodding. "You ready to go, Zukina?"

Zukina stared at her for a moment, then nodded as well. "Yeah."

"Rain, how about you handle their shopping?" Tao asked. "You can take Xeno and Everfrost with you."

"Yeah, ok." Rain said to him, then turned to the others. "Just give me the money and the list of what you need."

"I... I can help, too." said Faith. "No one from the Empire would know me."

"Thanks." 18 said to all of them.

Eve had watched Storm and Zukina leave and as the door closed behind them she bit her lip and turned to the former Masters. Just looking at them sent a chill down her spine. Her time in Imperial custody hadn't been pleasant and the memory of it had stayed with her. Still, as all of the others turned to leave, she took a deep breath and dove in head first.

"Um, Mistress Bra?" she started.

Bra stopped just before walking out the door and looked back, Pan stopping just outside the door too. "Just Bra." the girl said. "We're not Masters anymore."

Eve nodded. "Um... Bra... I was... I was wondering if we could talk, uh, just for a minute?"

Bra nodded. "Go on ahead." she said to her friend. "I'll catch up."

"Alright." Pan replied, turning and walking off.

XXX

Zukina sighed in relief as Ferri's store came into view over Storm's shoulder. They'd gotten everything they'd needed at Tremo's, though they hadn't found any Regen Tanks that looked to be in good condition. She'd checked each of the four at the store and they would have all required extensive repairs to make usable. Even so, they had three large and heavy items that couldn't be capsulized.

She had the two lighter ones, the V6LK power cell and the power drive control unit, on a cart she'd pulled while Storm had pulled the heavier one, the Gravitonic Field Coil, on her own cart. The Sai-jin couldn't believe how sore and tired she was after only a mile and a half. She wasn't a weakling and yet she was near exhausted from hauling only around six tons so short a distance. She was annoyed with herself both for having worn out so fast and easily and for being relieved and happy that the trip was nearly over.

"Getting a little flabby around the middle?" Storm called back jokingly, apparently having heard the sigh.

"I'm a mechanic, not a pack mule." she replied. "I spend..." she hesitated for a moment, then sighed. "I _spent_ my days working on mechanical and computer systems, not doing manual labor."

"You're a Sai-jin, aren't you?" Storm asked, smiling, as they pulled to a stop outside the store front. "I thought your people were all about being tough."

"I don't know if you've noticed," the Sai-jin began, pointing toward her chest. "But I've got a few things that get in the way of doing intense physical stuff."

"Oh, I've noticed." the Wathor replied, smirking, as Ferri came out with an anti-grav cart for the supplies.

Zukina rolled her eyes at the other woman's remark. She knew she didn't have anyone to blame but herself for that. She knew what the Wathor was like and had left the door wide open for such a comment. So, she ignored it and set about helping Ferri and Storm move the heavy machines onto the anti-grav cart. She soon forgot her fatigue and found herself wondering how the short woman was able to help them at all. She didn't have a scouter or any means of detecting the woman's power but she'd picked up that she wasn't particularly strong.

_"I guess this is what Tao and 18 were talking about earlier."_ she thought as they set the power cell down on the anti-grav cart and went back for the slightly heavier power drive control unit next. _"You can't judge what someone is capable of just by their apparent power level."_ The three finished moving the control unit, then moved the Gravitonic Field Coil. As Zukina stepped back she watched Ferri, single handedly, pull the cart into her shop and shook her head.

"Alright, let's get back inside." Storm said, holding the door open for her. Yet another one of the odd idiosyncrasies of the Wathor. The Sai-jin still hadn't figured her out. She was domineering, sadistic, hostile and... occasionally compassionate, gentle, and polite. The odd incongruity of how the woman treated her, more than anything else she did, was driving her crazy. She pushed it aside, though, and went in. Ferri had already moved the cart out of sight and the main lobby of the store was empty.

"Think everyone else is downstairs still?" she asked.

"Probably." said Storm, adjusting the settings of ring unit of the Restraint System. "Alright, range is re-set back to normal. I'm going to go grab something to eat, you can do whatever for now."

Zukina watched her walk off and sighed. She knew what the 'for now' meant. _"Go with the flow."_ she said to herself, making her way toward the back of the store and the large hangar space where Ferri was assembling Tao's ship. _"Go with the flow. Go with the flow."_ she mentally repeated. She'd managed to keep all of her interactions with Storm peaceful so far by repeating that to herself.

"No, your other left!" Ferri's voice sounded as she walked into the hangar where Tao's ship was being constructed. It wasn't much of a ship yet, didn't even look like one, but it was already impressive. Far larger than Tao's old ship and no longer shaped like a giant space pod. She couldn't discern yet what the final shape would be but she was sure it was a design she'd not seen before. Not surprising since all she'd ever seen or worked on had been Imperial ships.

Shifting her gaze from the larger picture of the hangar and ship to a narrower focus she found Ferri had been talking to Mistresses Pan and Videl, who were apparently in the process of trying to place and secure the Gravitonic Field Coil. As she watched the women work she started to frown and, before she knew it or had time to think about what she was doing, she heard the sound of her own voice calling out through the hangar.

"If you keep tipping it like that it's going to fall!" Her mouth stopped moving while still open and she just stood there, unable to believe what she'd just done. Meanwhile, the two women had glanced her way and, in that instant, the coil tipped too far and started to plummet. Pan let out a sudden curse and surged down after it, aura flashing gold and lightning sparking around it as she got under the heavy piece of machinery and caught it. Videl floated down and joined her, taking it from her daughter as the younger girl shifted back to base.

"Sorry..." Zukina started.

"Don't apologize." said Pan. "I didn't even know there was problem."

"Neither did I." said Ferri. "You've got a pretty keen eye."

Zukina shrugged. "I've worked on ships for the last twelve years, fixing just about every part of them."

"Care to give us a hand?"

Zukina smiled. "Sure, I'd love to help." she said, walking farther into the hangar. _"Go with the flow, eh? Maybe there _is_ something to that. I've always wanted to work on ship construction, not just repairs."_ She joined the other three around the ship and helped the two former Masters place and secure the Gravitonic Field Coil, then they set about placing the turbine coils. Aligning them properly with the framework of the ship, to keep it balanced, and then linking them in with the Gravitonic Field Coil was slow and exacting work. Work she'd done before during ship repairs, and before long Ferri was letting her lead the process.

The Sai-jin quickly lost herself in the work, forgetting all about Storm and the unwanted, and equally inescapable, situation she was in there. All that existed was her, her job, her work crew, and the ship. She wasn't sure how much time it took to finish, it seemed to fly right by, but eventually they had everything aligned and connected to Ferri's specifications. As she floated back to take a look at the set-up and the framework of the ship she thought she saw what the design would be like. She couldn't be certain, there would be other components to add that would shift weight this way or that, that could balance the ship out in a different direction, but she thought she saw what the short woman was going for, and it was pretty impressive.

"What next?" she asked, looking over to Ferri and wiping some sweat off her brow. Before Ferri could answer, however, another voice called from somewhere else in the store.

"Zukina!"

It was clearly Storm and the sound of it brought her fully back to reality. The Sai-jin sighed, her shoulder's slumping a little. "Well, I'll come back later if I can." she said. "Apparently her highness is done eating."

"Thanks for the help." Ferri said.

"No problem." Zukina replied as she left the hangar. Entering the lobby she glanced around for the Wathor but didn't find her, so figured she was likely still downstairs and made her way over and down to the basement. Reaching the bottom of the stairs she found Storm standing there waiting. "What do you want?"

"Head to Eve's room." the Wathor said. "When you're done there come find me in the kitchen."

Zukina stared after her in confusion as the Wathor left. _"What was that about?"_ she wondered. If the woman was only now going to eat then... what had she been doing all this time? And when she was done with _what_ in her and Eve's room? Shaking her head to try and clear it she made her way down the hall to the room she shared with the Nezorf, pushed the door open, and stepped inside. She came to a sudden halt then as she got a look at the room. Eve was no where in sight but Bra was sitting on the edge of the bed, leaning back on her arms and staring at the ceiling.

"Princess...?" she asked, uncertainly.

Bra sat up, looked toward the woman, and smiled. "Zukina, right?" she asked, and the Sai-jin nodded. The royal then patted the bed beside her. "Have a seat, I'd like to talk to you for a bit."

Zukina nodded and made her way over to sit beside the girl, confused and curious about what was going on. "Uh... what...?" she started as she reached the bed and sat.

"You don't have to be so nervous." said Bra. "I'm not going to bite. Now, I've heard you're a slave, and Storm's Mate?"

Zukina cast her eyes down to the ground and nodded. "Yes." she said. Having her Princess ask about it made her feel even more humiliated by the whole thing. "For around a month or so, now." She turned her gaze back to the other then as she continued. "How... how did you...?"

"Find out?" Bra asked, raising her eyebrows. "Your friend Eve stopped me earlier, while you were heading out to go shopping. She filled me in on what she knew, from you turning up in the Talon's hold up to when you called out to Avo and Kado. I also just finished talking to Storm." Bra sighed and looked toward the wall, leaning back onto her arms again. "I get the distinct impression from what they've told me that you don't like your situation at all."

"I'm a slave, I'm someone's _property_, I can't think of anything more... disgusting or degrading. Especially since she's not even a Sai-jin." Zukina replied, surprised by the ferocity of her words, especially considering who she was speaking to, and quickly turned her eyes back to the floor again after she'd finished.

"No, I suppose not." Bra conceded. "Though, would you really feel any different if Storm were a Sai-jin?"

"I'd still not like it." she answered. "But it wouldn't be as humiliating."

"Well, I think you're looking at it from the wrong perspective, myself." said Bra, drawing the woman's gaze back to her again. "I know, I know. It's not a pleasant position. I wouldn't want to be there, and I wouldn't put someone there myself. When I... when I was telling Marron how I felt I made sure she knew it was her choice. But at the same time... Well, it's how I came about, after all. And Gohan, and Goten, and Pan. Now, you'll say those are all different, because it was a Sai-jin doing the taking of a non Sai-jin, but you have to realize the Humans dislike it just as much as you do.

"What I wanted to get at, though, isn't that it's happened before. It's that the primary root cause of why you hate it so much is your belief that it somehow diminishes your honor. That it's an insult to your pride. I can see why you'd feel that way, we Sai-jin's don't much like being on the losing end of anything, _especially_ when the winner isn't even a Sai-jin. But I say you're not on the losing end of anything."

"How... how you can say...?"

"Think for a moment." Bra said slowly, sitting up straight again. "Storm told me the reason she took you. She said she told you, too. Do you remember it?"

Zukina thought for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah, sure. It was because she wanted the challenge of 'breaking' me before we got to Saiya, since she was certain she'd be executed after getting there."

"Well, there was that, yes." said Bra, nodding a little. "But why did she believe it would be a challenge? What made her change her mind from just 'playing' with you on occasion to actually taking you as her Mate?"

"Because... Because I fought longer than she thought I would."

Bra smiled faintly. "Exactly. You may not have realized it, but you impressed her."

"I... what?"

"You impressed her. You showed her you were made of tougher stuff than she thought. She told me you're not the first Sai-jin she's spent time with. That she spent time as an inquisitor and had several Sai-jin warriors 'under her care' during that time, and all of them broke and did what she wanted faster than you did. She took you because she thought you'd be a challenge, and she thought you'd be a challenge because you impressed her. I know a little something about Wathors and they're even more conquest centric than Sai-jins. They value and admire strength above everything, and desire it in nothing more than they do in their Mate."

"So... you... you're suggesting that I... look at this as... what? Proof of my strength?"

"Something like that. Putting aside your apparent lack of interest in women, the central reason you hate your situation is because you view it as a sign of weakness. Only, it's not. Sure, you broke a little, you gave her what she wanted, but you lasted longer than trained warriors. You impressed someone of a race that cares as much about strength of will as we Sai-jins care about raw power. Stop qualifying your situation as 'I gave in to her will' and instead as 'I lasted longer than warriors stronger than me' and a lot of your resentment will fade."

"I suppose... what you say makes some sense. Still..."

Bra smiled. "Yeah, I know. Not your typical Sai-jin response to such a situation. But then, I'm not your typical Sai-jin, am I?" Bra sighed. "Of course, even if you do flip your view around, there's still the fact she's female, no? Unfortunately, I can't help you with that. You're either born liking us or not."

The Sai-jin woman nodded and then sat in silence for a few moments. Finally, she looked toward Bra again. "Um, do you mind if I ask why you're helping Storm?"

The Princess raised her eyebrows at that. "Helping Storm?" she repeated. "You think that's what I'm doing? Eve asked me to help you, not her, and you're the Sai-jin, not her. The more you resist her, the more you'll pay for it. I know that the biggest fear looming over you now is that Storm will eventually try to break you completely. That's not an assumed blemish to your honor but the loss of the very thing that makes you Sai-jin."

Zukina nodded. "Yes." she said softly. "But you just suggested..."

"I'm not particularly a fan of my father right now," Bra interrupted. "But he told me once that no matter what position a Sai-jin finds themselves in it is their duty to fulfill that position to their full potential. No matter what the situation, a Sai-jin can offer nothing but their best at _being_ the best at what they are, or they can't truly call themselves Sai-jin."

Zukina sat and mulled that over for a moment, trying to figure out what the Princess was trying to tell her. Clearly her first supposition was wrong, or she wouldn't have been interrupted just now. _"Qualify my situation as lasting longer than warriors stronger than me."_ she mused. _"That's something to take pride in, a mark of honor. She's saying that even though I'm now a slave the means by which I got here keeps my honor intact. I didn't get here by being weak, but by being strong. What about the rest? Be the best at what I am, or I can't call myself a Sai-jin... But what am I now, except for a sla..."_

The Sai-jin jerked slightly as the concept suddenly bloomed in her mind, the entire thing already fully formed. It seemed at first glance to be completely counter Sai-jin in nature. So much so she thought it couldn't be what the Princess was suggesting. But further consideration of it showed that, no, it wasn't counter Sai-jin. It was pure Sai-jin, all honor and pride and strength. It just stepped back from the situation and objectively looked at it in a way she had not before.

_"I'm a slave, and Storm's taken Mate. I can either refuse to act like a Sai-jin and wallow in self-pity, act like a child and throw an unending fit over it, eventually be broken, and thus lose what makes me a Sai-jin. Or I can act like a Sai-jin, do what my situation demands of me no matter how much I dislike it, and forever remain a Sai-jin."_ she thought. And as she ran the concept through her mind she knew it was what Bra had been suggesting. Surviving, remaining a Sai-jin, and yet still doing her duty as what she now was, Storm's Mate and slave...

The Masters had signed off on Storm taking her, the Princess had just affirmed her ownership by the Wathor, and so this was, in its own way, a mission to be done. Find the honor and the pride in being what she had become, instead of clinging like a child to the past. Obey Storm not because she was a slave, but because she was a Sai-jin following her duty and following the orders of her superiors. It was amazing to her how quickly her mind started turning over, and the actions of resistance that she had once prided herself in suddenly seemed cowardly. Only cowards with no honor refused to let go of past status, refused to even try and succeed at where they were now, refused to...

_"Go with the flow."_ she thought suddenly, her respect for the Nezorf increasing yet again.

"I think someone is waiting for you." Bra said after a few more moments. Her voice brought Zukina back to reality again and she nodded.

"Yeah." she said, standing. "Thank-you, Princess, for helping me see."

Bra shrugged. "Thank Eve." she said. "For not having any Sai-jin blood in her she's pretty good at understanding the way we think."

XXX

"What are you thinking about?" 17 asked as he sat down on the floor beside his sister. It had taken him a while to find her, with their tracers off he couldn't just pin point her location at will like usual, and she'd found a dark and empty hangar to hole herself up in. He'd had a feeling that learning of Krillin's likely survival the day before would have made an impact on her, and the fact he'd barely seen her since then all but confirmed it. When she didn't answer after several minutes he glanced over at her and saw her staring off into the darkness and he could tell she'd been crying. "You ok?"

She closed her eyes for a moment and wiped away the old tears. "I don't know." she said at last.

"What's on your mind?" he asked. "I thought you'd be happy. I know how much you care about him, and now you know he's still alive."

"Probably still alive." she corrected, opening her eyes again and looking down at her hands. "And it's great, having hope that he's not dead."

"But?" asked her brother. "I can sense there's a 'but' at the end of that statement, so what is it?"

She sighed. "How do I tell him?" she asked, looking up at him, her eyes meeting his. Hers were glistening as fresh tears threatened. "How do I tell him I wasn't able to protect her? That she's dead now because I wasn't strong enough? That he has a daughter he's never going to get to meet, and it's all my fault?"

"Hey, hey, enough of that." 17 said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. "It's not your fault, 18. You were both dealt a bad hand and you did the best you could with what you were given."

"But if I'd still been on Saiya, instead of going on that mission, I could have gone with her to Gorneo and..."

"And nothing. Vegeta would have found some way of keeping you on Saiya, or away from Gorneo, or come up with some other plan, or maybe killed you both. You thought she was safe, we all did. And until that power spike happened, she was. There's no way you could have predicted something like that. And this way, at least you know who's responsible, you know the truth. If you hadn't gone to Leberion you wouldn't know the truth, Vegeta would have just fed you, fed all of us, his cover story."

"But if I'd come back sooner, or called Saiya sooner..." she shook her head and closed her eyes again, fighting against the tears.

"You can what-if all day, all night, all _century_, and it wont matter. The more you question everything you've done to get to this point, the less it all means. No matter how much you second guess what you did you can't change it, and can't prove that any other way would have been better. All you'll do is cause it all to loose any meaning by not moving forward from it. If you don't take it, accept it for what it was, what it is, and move forward with it, then nothing comes of it, and it all means nothing."

18 nodded, wiping her eyes again. "You're right." she said, taking a deep and calming breath. "Sitting here thinking like this gets us nowhere. Wishing things had happened differently undermines the reality, lessens the significance of what's happened." She climbed to her feet and took another deep and calming breath. "Thanks, 17."

"Any time, sis."

She gave him a smile, then made her way out of the hangar. She needed to find Tao and speak with him. Leaving the dark empty hangar behind she checked her scanner and frowned. He was apparently suppressed, none of the powers she was getting in the area matched his. _"I guess I'll check the hangar where his ship is being built."_ she thought. There were several powers located there that could have been him. Approaching the door into the hangar she heard voices and the sound of machinery drifting out.

"Hold it there!" Zukina called. "Keep it steady!"

"I'm doing the best I can." Pan called back as 18 entered the room. She spotted the Hybrid floating up in the midst of Tao's future ship holding a large device of some sort over her head. The girl still had her power suppressed down to around ten thousand, likely why her arms were shaking from the strain and she was wobbling in the air. Floating around the device were Videl, Storm, and Rain, using energy torches to weld the object to the ship's frame.

"Steady!" Zukina yelled as the device slid a little to the left. "If it's not properly balanced the gravity field will be lopsided inside the ship and we'll have to remove it and start all over!"

"It could always be re-calibrated, couldn't it?" asked Everfrost from beside the Sai-jin.

Zukina shook her head. "No, not out of a faulty physical alignment. I mean, sure, you could change the field angle to match the ship, but then the generator itself would be out of alignment with the field. That's a great way to burn them out real fast. Re-calibration of the generators to restore proper field alignment is done to protect the equipment, not for the comfort of the crew."

"Do you know where Tao is?" 18 asked as she came up behind the pair.

Zukina glanced back at her and nodded. "He's downstairs with Eve." she said. "He's got her hacking into the ComNet again, digging through reports. Same room we were in yesterday."

"Thanks."

Zukina nodded again, turned back to the work at hand, and yelled again. "Higher! Get it higher, damn it, it's too low!"

18 smirked to herself a little as she left. The Sai-jin was most definitely in her element if she felt comfortable shouting like that at Pan. She could tell how nervous most of her new allies were around all of them. Tao was the only one who seemed completely unfazed by it, even around Pan and Bra, who he'd never had contact with before as he had with her and her brother. But then, little ever seemed to faze him. She'd noticed that the few times they'd had contact before this.

Leaving the hangar behind the Cyborg made her way downstairs to the room they'd all gathered in before. It was fairly easy to spot which one it had been because of the temporary patchwork covering over the hole she'd accidentally made earlier. "Come in." a voice called as she knocked. Opening the door and stepping inside she found Eve sitting in front of her computer as before, with Tao sitting beside her. Faith was sitting back on the bed watching over the shoulders of the two.

"Find anything?" she asked, closing the door again.

"So far, no." said Eve, frowning. "I've found a lot of reports on Slug, including one that was never issued that blamed him for the attack on Gorneo, but nothing to indicate who might be hiding him or where."

"So, that was his intended cover." 18 muttered, frowning. "I'd have probably bought it, too. He's attacked installation worlds before, looking for supplies." She sighed and ran a hand through her hair then as she gathered up her resolve. "Tao, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure." the Human replied, turning from the computer, climbing to his feet, and moving over to join her. "What do you need?"

The Cyborg licked her lips and shook her head slightly. "I've been... doing a lot of thinking these last few hours." she said. "And I was wondering, once things calm down a little, if you could take me to... to the new Human world."

Tao remained silent for a moment, then nodded. "I expected you'd ask eventually." he said. "If things go according to plan from here out and we recover the artifacts that Slug has claimed, I'll need to go to New Earth to deliver the Potaras to the others. You're welcome to come along."

"Tao, 18!" Eve called over, before 18 could say anything else.

"What is it?" Tao asked, turning her way again. "Have you found something?"

"Nothing on Slug's location." she said, turning to look at him. "But a series of new Imperial Posting reports were just entered into the system. A defense team was formed and dispatched to the Leberion system five days ago, slated to arrive on station in another ten days."

"What?" asked Faith, surprised. "They did send a team?"

"Apparently." said Eve, turning back to the screen and reading off what she saw. "Twenty-five people, powers ranging from 25,038 to 42,847. Fifteen Hiharys, eight Wathors, and two Kiskotians. Orders are to repel any pirate attacks on Leberion, and capture any pirates seen utilizing Imperial equipment, for extradition back to Saiya."

"What does it mean?" asked 18. "Does Vegeta not know it's Slug's people? Or are the two of them not working together anymore?"

"Interesting." said Tao. "Though this complicates matters slightly. The defense team will be in place long before any of us reach Leberion. While they wont be a threat themselves, they could alert Saiya to our presence if we're spotted."

"We'd be gone again before anyone could get to us." said 18. "Even Vegeta's fastest ship would still take at least twenty hours to reach the planet."

XXX

"This is just so _frustrating_." Bra said, staring at her reflection in the full length mirror on the door of her room. Up until a couple of minutes ago she'd been shadow boxing, the only means of training that was really available to her at the moment. "I need to train as hard as possible but with those two Androids still out there I can't risk powering-up!" She turned away from the mirror in disgust and left the room. Attempting to train was getting her no where but pissed off, she had to find something else to do. So she made her way back up stairs and decided to see if she could find Pan. Even with her friend's power greatly supressed she still found her easily, recognizing the feel of her power signature, and followed it into the hangar where Tao's ship was being constructed.

"Stop!" Zukina yelled, flying up into the air and toward the under-construction ship, as Bra entered. "It's off angle again!"

"What?" Pan moaned, looking up over her head at the massive square shaped device.

"It's two inches too low over here." replied the Sai-jin as she reached the top front right corner. "You need to keep it level, you can't let it drift."

"I'm trying!" Pan said, shifting the weight of the device in her hands. "But this thing weighs almost three tons and my arms are getting sore. I've been floating up here, holding it in place, for over an hour, now!"

"If you'd kept it steady it would have only taken us thirty or forty minutes to install it." said Zukina as she pushed against the box and balanced it back out again.

"I've been trying to keep it steady!" the Hybrid cried, exasperated.

"You're the one who wanted to do it by yourself." said Storm.

Pan sighed. "I know, don't remind me."

"Want to switch?" asked Bra as she reached them. "My attempts at training on my own have been a bust, thanks to the Androids, but this looks like it might be worth something."

"Yeah, ok." Pan said, nodding. "My arms are killing me, I need a break."

Bra floated up and slipped into place as Pan slipped out and floated back to the ground. "So, I just hold it steady here?" she asked.

"Yes." replied Zukina, floating back to the ground as well. "Don't let it tip in any direction, it needs to be perfectly balanced and level. Storm, Rain, Videl, go check all the old welds before continuing. Make sure the metal hasn't warped from the shifting. If it has, re-weld the spot so it's secure again." The three women nodded to show that they'd heard and then set about doing as instructed.

"Bra, I know you want to be able to help 18, and to keep your promise to Marron, but I think you need to be a little more realistic." said Pan. "Even if the Androids weren't here there's no training you could do that would have you matching your father any time soon. We're talking way too big of a difference here. Your maximum is about twelve times less than his."

"I know. But I'm not going to let that deter me. I know it's a long shot but I _have_ to try, Pan. I can't just stand back and let you guys do all the fighting. Hell, right now I'd settle for having enough power to deal with that purple midget."

"What about Zenkais?" asked Zukina. "It would take a lot of them, I'm sure, but they would speed things up."

"Can't." said Pan. "Only Sai-jins who don't have access to Super Sai-jin get Zenkais." While the three Sai-jins continued to discuss possible training methods Videl, Storm, and Rain completed their re-checks and repairs, and then moved on to making the new welds they still had left to do. It was almost a half hour later that Zukina called a halt to the work and Bra floated down to the ground again, nearly exhausted. Flying while holding something so heavy, without letting it move, was a lot more exhausting work than it seemed. Especially supressed so low.

"Well, maybe Ferri can help." Videl said as she joined Bra and her daughter.

"Help with what?" asked Ferri as she flew through the door into the hangar, a gleaming silver object in her left hand.

"My training." said Bra. "I need to get a lot stronger as fast as possible, but with 14 and 15 still out there I can't power-up to do it."

"I think I could probably help with that. But, first, this is yours, Videl." she said, holding out the silver object. It was oval shaped, about five inches long and three inches wide, and on closer inspection they saw that lengths of black cloth were attached to the back of the device. One length came out the top and looped, like a necklace, while the other came out on either side and had a clasp attached to either end.

"It's your scrambler and canceller. The device needs to be held near the center of your torso, hence the straps. Put it on over your head, center the chest peice, then fasten the second strap around your torso to help secure it in place. As long as the device is within two feet of your body the nano-bot tracer signal will be blocked."

"Great, thank-you." Videl said, taking the device from her and putting it on as instructed. It felt kind of odd, and looked kind of odd too, but she was happy to have it. It meant she could stay with her daughter without endangering her or the others anymore.

"Now, as for you." Ferri said, turning to face Bra again. "Hmmm, I think maybe a PGM would be best."

"A what?"

"A Portable Gravity Modulator."

"What's that? I've never heard of it."

"No, I suppose you wouldn't have." said Ferri, smiling a little. "They don't exist inside the Empire. They were developed by some black-market scientest about five or six years ago. I've got a few in stock I haven't been able to unload yet becuase of how insanely expensive they are, and how few people recognize their true potential. With a PGM on you can reduce the gravity of any location to as little as 0.6 times galactic standard levels, or raise it as high as 250 times galactic standard."

"So, like, a portable gravity training room?" asked Bra.

"Yeah, one that can go up to..." Ferri paused for a moment to convert galactic standard gravity to Saiya normal. "Up to about 45 times standard Saiya gravity." she finished. "With it you'll be able to train without actively training. Have it running when you're doing your normal daily routine and just brushing your hair becomes a work out."

"You said they're expensive, how much?" asked Pan.

"I think we can work out a fair trade. You came in on a saucer ship, right?"

"Yeah, one of my father's." answered Bra.

"Perfect. I still need two regen tanks for Tao's ship. What do you say?"

"I say you have a deal."

XXX

North Kai stood with his hands clasped behind his back and a scowl firmly planted on his face. It had been seven days now since Yamcha had hit Gregory and they'd started this special training. He had expected at least _one_ of the five of them to have succeeded at at least _one_ of the skills he'd been trying to impart. Instead, even on the final day of the week of training, all five of them were still unable to do _any_ of them. Not one.

Marron, on the other hand, had already succeeded at _three_ of the skills. She had gotten one of them on the first day, having tried it on her own while watching the others and listening to the explanations. Her success had, at first, put a fire in the others. That had burned out by the time Marron, now participating directly in the training, had succeeded at the _second_ skill while they were still struggling with the first. The one among them who wasn't a fighter, whose ki was barely high enough to even _allow_ for her to harness it, had succeeded. Their five champions, who were to be the last hope of the universe against the Masters, had achieved zip.

Zilch.

Nada.

And just now, yet again, the five of them had failed, spectacularly. It clearly wasn't his teaching methods. He'd taught these skills to others before, and Marron had picked up on them with ease. He also knew the five of them were very skilled. Each had invented attacks of their own, some of them quite difficult. Each of them had considerable experience and accomplishments under their belts. And yet, at the present moment, all five of them were laying face down on the ground, unconscious, having failed to avoid the attack Chaotzu had launched at them.

"No go still, huh?" Marron asked from behind him as she walked out of the Kai's house.

The North Kai sighed. "No go." he said. "I had hoped the added incentive of an incoming attack they couldn't avoid would at least kick _one_ of them into gear."

"I don't get it." said Marron. "I mean, it's not that hard to do. I can't go very far yet but that's only because I can't sense ki, so I have to see where it is I'm going. The five of them _can_ sense ki, though, so they should be able to pop up just about anywhere in Otherworld."

"They should." agreed the Kai. "Of course, to pop up somewhere else first requires _leaving_ their current location."

Marron winced at the Kai's tone and handed him the extra milkshake she had. The Kai took the cup and started sucking down the cold chocolate shake as he continued to stare at the downed warriors through his glasses.

"They'll get it." said Chaotzu as he floated down to join the two of them. "They just need a little more time."

North Kai grunted. "You mastered this particular skill in six hours, Marron did it in ten. And you could at least do all five of them to _some_ degree within a week. They still can't do any."

"I was also dead." said Chaotzu. "And so is Marron."

The Kai snorted again. "Being dead helps with physical things. Durability, stamina, things like that. It does not, however, help with matters entirely skill related. Such as learning techniques like these. The Kaioken, certainly, as that also strains the body, but these techniques do not." He sighed and shook his head. "Marron, would you care to do the honors?"

"Sure." she said, nodding. She then closed her eyes and a moment later there was a groan from Krillin, then another from Enzeru, as the five of them started to stir. Sixty seconds later all five of them were sitting up and looking rather dejected.

"Alright. I think we can all agree that was another failure." said the Kai.

"This is pointless." muttered Yamcha. "We've been at it for days and it's just not working."

"Chaotzu can do all of these techniques." said the Kai. "And Marron has learned three of them. If there is a problem it is with your actions, not with the techniques. You need to get through whatever that problem is and then you'll be able to learn these."

"Yeah, well, I don't know how." said Mitsuki, climbing to her feet. "Kais, I didn't even know half of this stuff was _possible_ just a few months ago."

"This is important." the Kai said. "If you can't even learn _these_ five skills you will never learn the Kaioken or the techniques that the Supreme Kai wishes to teach you. And that makes _all_ of this pointless because without learning them you have _no_ chance at defeating the Masters."

Marron winced again, though not just at the Kai's tone of voice this time. She thought he was being a little hard on them. Even though they hadn't succeeded at any of the techniques yet they _were_ trying. Each of them was giving it everything they had. They didn't need more... _"Could that be it?"_ she wondered, blinking rapidly in wonder and confusion. _"It always caused me to lock up at school, could they be having the same problem now?"_ As she watched the Kai set the five of them up for another attempt, again with Chaotzu sending an attack at them as added incentive, she decided it was at least worth investigating.

_"North Kai?"_ she asked telepathically, not wanting to alert the others to the conversation.

The Kai blinked and looked back at her, but apparently caught the meaning of the look on her face as he responded telepathically as well. _"What is it?"_

_"I was just thinking, could their problem be entirely mental? Stress, anxiety, nerves, the pressure of the situation?"_

The Kai tilted his head a little, then nodded slowly. _"Hmmm. That could very well be the problem."_ he said to her. _"Their anxiety is manifesting in doubt, making them think they will fail, and so they do."_ The thought hadn't occured to him because of how well they'd done in the actual training, how determined and gung-ho they had been. They'd done amazingly well at the first two tasks they had been set. But those had been physical tasks, not ones of the mind, and so he felt it was possible.

_"Is there anything we can do?"_

The Kai smiled. _"I think there just may be."_ he said. _"So, let's see if you are right."_ He turned from Marron and looked toward the others again who were still getting into position. He cleared his throat loudly to attract their attention first, then spoke. "Hold it. We're going to take a break from this for a moment. Marron has brought something to my attention and now I want to try something else, first."

"It's not another technique, is it?" asked Krillin.

"No, not a technique. An... experience. Come, place your hands on my back. Marron, Chaotzu, you as well." Marron nodded and laid a hand on his shoulder while the others joined the two of them and did likewise. An instant later the eight of them vanished. It was only the second time it had happened and the five living mortals found it as disorienting as they had the first time. The Kai had whisked them off once more.

The first time they had gone from the world on which they had first appeared on, where they had met the Supreme Kai, to the North Kai's small planetoid. Now they had left that world behind and were on another one, a much larger one. An... odd one. The grass underfoot was purple and the sky above was orange. Where they had materialized appeared to be a vast field, a few lone pine trees growing here and there. At least _they_ were the right color.

"Where...?" began Krillin.

"This is Renni, one of the many different worlds located within Otherworld." the North Kai said. "This particular world is located near the outer rim, which is why the sky is orange. Constant dusk."

"Outer rim?" asked Mitsuki.

"Yes." the Kai replied. "The universe, Otherworld included, is not infinite in size, despite what many mortals have assumed. The mortal world, Otherworld, and the Demon world all exist within a space that is shaped like a massive sphere. Otherworld, from Heaven down to the depths of Hell, exists at the top of this sphere, the Mortal world exists at the center, and the Demon world fills the bottom. In all three there is an outer edge, a point where the universe comes to an end. The outer rim is the most outward part of Otherworld, before the Edge of the Universe."

"And we're not quite there yet, just close?" asked Yamcha.

"Close is a matter of scale." the Kai said, smiling. "The distance from here to the Edge of the Universe is still somewhere in the ballpark of _fifty_ times the span of the entire North Galaxy. The universe as a whole is about a quadrillion times larger, most of that space in the Mortal world is empty void. That is not the case in Otherworld or the Demon world. Of course, our populations are vastly larger, what with having to house all of the mortals who have come and gone since the dawn of time."

"Makes sense." Krillin said, wide eyed.

"Ummm..." Mitsuki started. "If Otherworld is above..."

"No." the Kai interrupted, shaking his head, guessing where the question was going. "A mortal could not simply travel upward from the Mortal world and locate Otherworld, or downward in Otherworld to return to the Mortal world. They would find the Edge of the Universe, but never find their way between planes. Otherworld, the Mortal world, and the Demon world exist in different dimensions. I would explain more but the details would, not unexpectedly, go over your heads. I can think of only maybe seven mortals, living or dead, who would understand it all. Anyway, we must press on to why we are here."

"Why _are_ we here?" asked Marron.

"To test your theory." the Kai told her. "Enzeru, Mitsuki, Krillin, Yamcha, Tien, what you are about to embark on is a most difficult journey. An experience that could very well destroy you. I am not being melodramatic when I say that, nor do I mean that it could kill you. It could very well _destroy_ you, completely. Not even your soul would survive. However, I believe it highly likely you will succeed."

"And if we do, we'll be able to learn the moves you've been trying to teach us?" asked Enzeru.

"If Marron and I are correct, yes. Even if we are wrong, however, this journey will help you greatly all the same."

"Alright, what do we do?" asked Tien.

"Enter there." North Kai replied, turning and pointing at something behind him, about thirty feet away. At first none of them saw anything, but then Yamcha noticed a small patch of darkness on a boulder that sat between two trees. A moment later he realized it was a cave. It looked barely large enough to for them to crawl through.

"A cave?" he asked.

"Yes. That is the Cave of Shadows. Enter it and confront what you find inside. That's all the information I can give you."

"Well... let's get this over with, then." Mitsuki said, starting off toward the cave, Enzeru and Tien right behind her.

Krillin sighed, shook his head, and started after them. "Well, let's just hope this goes better than the last week has." he said.

"Tell me about it." agreed Yamcha, following. "Though I suppose it really can't go any worse."

_"I just hope this was a good idea."_ the North Kai mused as he clasped his hands behind his back and watched the five warriors drop to their hands and knees and crawl into the cave one by one. _"If Marron's right they need to get over it in order to proceed with the training, or they'll never have a chance against the Masters. But right or not, if they fail here all our hopes go down the tubes."_

He watched until the last of them had disappeared inside and then turned away from the cave, waved a hand through the air, and three lawn chairs popped into existence. Another wave of his hand brought forth two small wooden tables and a larger one upon which sat an industrial sized blender and a cappuccino machine. "Well, get comfortable you two. This could take a while."


End file.
